Instagram’s founders are on to their next venture, launching Artifact, an AI-powered social news feed app.
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launched Instagram and helped lead the company through its acquisition by Facebook. After reported tension over Mark Zuckerberg taking a more hands-on approach to Instagram’s day-to-day operations, the pair left the company.
Systrom and Krieger are now launching their new project in an effort to utilize AI and machine learning in the social media space. The company’s site describes Artifact as “a personalized news feed driven by artificial intelligence.”
According to The Verge’s Casey Newton, the app will show users a personalized and curated news feed. Clicking on a story will show similar stories, TikTok-style. The company is also beta testing features that will let users post links to stories and allow other users to follow them. Another feature would allow users to offer commentary and privately discuss linked news items.
Systrom emphasized the importance of machine learning to the new app.
“Throughout the years, what I saw was that every time we use machine learning to improve the consumer experience, things got really good really quickly,” he told Newton.
The two founders saw the possibilities of combining machine learning with a TikTok-like approach but with a focus on text rather than video.
“I saw that shift, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s the future of social,’” Systrom said. “These unconnected graphs; these graphs that are learned rather than explicitly created. And what was funny to me is as I looked around, I was like, ‘Man, why isn’t this happening everywhere in social? Why is Twitter still primarily follow-based? Why is Facebook?’”
Given Systrom and Krieger’s past success, there’s a good chance Artifact could be the next big thing in social media.
Users can join the waitlist here.