Launched a few months ago, Artifact is a news app with TikTok in mind. Created by Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the app is improving drastically. The app’s front page is a feed of popular articles from a curated list of publishers. While signing up, you can select your interests and then the articles unroll.
One of the biggest problems while reading online news is clickbait headlines that entice users. Artifact is trying to deal with the issue with a new feature. It allows users to mark articles as clickbait and then the app will be able to rewrite the clickbait-style headline for you in real-time with some help from OpenAI’s GPT-4 large language model.
“To rewrite a headline, tap ‘Mark as Clickbait Title’. The new title will only be visible to you by default. If enough people report the same article, a human reviewer may decide to make it the default title for all Artifact users,” said Mike Krieger.
Clickbait is often used by online publications to draw in the user in a very competitive news market. Such articles may put gossip in the headline or leave out important facts to reel people in. Such headlines may also mess with Artifact’s recommendation system because it may make the algorithm feel that users are interested in such articles. The solution is to tackle it.
Kevin Systrom has told The Verge: “In our experience in testing, it’s basically always right (rewriting headlines). I don’t think we’ve actually found an example where it hasn’t been right. We’ve found examples where it’ll rewrite the title and it’s not necessarily better, but it’s not worse.”
Artifact can become a space for high-quality news. Writers can verify their profiles and, over time, gain followers on the platform. The network has been designed keeping writers in mind. Systrom and Krieger are focused on creators and giving them access to new audiences and better engagement.