More than four years after leaving Instagram, the co-founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, return to the market to announce the launch of a new app: Artifact.

The idea of ​​this app is to create a personalized feed that contains articles selected from editorials ranging from major newspapers, such as The New York Times, to texts by small creators from the most diverse niches, with the aim of becoming a kind of “TikTok for texts”.

What is Artifact?

Artifact uses artificial intelligence to understand users’ interests and generate a personalized news feed: the more you use the app, the more the algorithm becomes personalized.

Soon, it will be possible to follow other users and interact with them through comments and direct messages, encouraging discussions among your friends.

It is important to highlight that Artifact will be curated from approved sources, guaranteeing high-quality news and information.

The company reviews them through a fact-checking process before approving them. However, the algorithm may also provide content that the user may not agree with.

The app is available now for Android and iOS, and people interested in trying Artifact need an invitation, but currently can sign up for one via the waiting list, according to a tweet made by Systrom on his personal account on the Birdie network.

Eventually, the platform will display personalized advertising for users who get the free plan, but the app’s team has been exploring paid options as well, such as premium subscriptions.

Inspiration or New Competitor?

The idea of ​​the application is not new to the digital market, since Byte Dance – the company that owns TikTok – has an app with the same logic, Toutiao, China’s largest news aggregator with currently over 200 million users and valued at US$75 billion.

Elon Musk recently acquired Twitter and is considering Artifact as a possible competitor or direct attack.

Regardless, it is clear that the best technologies of each successful platform inspired the app.

An example of this is algorithmic feed prediction, popularized by TikTok and now used by Artifact for text feeds.

There’s something kind of poetic about seeing these ideas bounce around the industry. One day a Chinese aggregator takes off by using smart content filtering, and two years later, a couple of Silicon Valley veterans decide, “Hey, let’s bring this vibe to English-speaking readers.” If you squint, the “originality” debate starts to feel pointless. Everything’s a remix anyway.

Something else worth mentioning—Artifact doesn’t just lift features, it sort of rethinks what news apps can be by focusing on a feedback loop that feels remarkably personal. The feeling of the app adapting in real-time as you scroll and click, almost like it’s reading your mind, can be a bit uncanny. But it’s honestly what makes it sticky. When you get served a rabbit-hole deep-dive on an obscure hobby you Googled once, you start to see what Systrom and Krieger might be aiming for: news that feels as tailored and addictive as your favorite playlist.

Furthermore, Systrom recounts to Platformer that advances in AI inspired them, like the Transformer from Google, which helps computers better understand languages ​​and contexts.

The Transformer architecture also inspired apps like ChatGPT.

AI is no longer the future, it’s reality, and with the launch of ChatGPT last year, the interest and curiosity around this technology grew immensely among companies and professionals in the tech and marketing industries.

Therefore, professionals must keep an open mind to understand how the new app will fit into the market.

Two technology giants created Artifact, which may become another application/resource for us to build online communities and search for first-hand content.