Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, co-founders of Instagram, have launched ‘Artifact’, a text-based version of TikTok that will use machine learning to understand users’ interests.
According to IANS, Artifact is a personalized news feed application whose name represents the combination of articles, facts, and artificial intelligence (AI).
The application opened up its waiting list to the public on Tuesday and is available for both Android and iOS devices.
The app opens to a feed of popular articles curated from a variety of publications, ranging from top news outlets to small-scale blogs about niche topics.
After users tap on articles that interest them, the app will show them similar posts and stories in the future, similar to how watching videos on TikTok For You page tunes the app’s algorithm over time.
The app’s beta users are currently testing two more features that Systrom hopes will become the app’s mainstays.
One of them is a feed that displays posts made by users you’ve chosen to follow, as well as their comments.
The second feature is a direct message inbox, which will allow users to privately discuss the posts they read with friends.
Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for approximately $1 billion in cash and stock, and Systrom and Krieger resigned from Facebook later that year.