> Systrom said he was once skeptical of the ability of machine-learning systems to improve recommendations — but his experience at Instagram turned him into a true believer. > “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 said.

> The question is whether personalized recommendations for news articles and blog posts can drive the same viral success for Artifact that video has for TikTok. It’s not a slam dunk: in 2014, a wave of personalized news apps with names like Zite and Pulse came and went, dogged by their inability to create deep habits in users. And earlier this month, Tokyo-based SmartNews, which uses similar AI technology to personalize recommendations, laid off 40 percent of its workforce in the United States and China amid a declining user base and challenging ad market.

> Like most startups at this stage, Artifact has yet to commit to a business model. Advertising would be an obvious fit, Systrom said. He’s also interested in thinking about revenue-sharing deals with publishers. If Artifact gets big, it could help readers find new publications and encourage them to subscribe to them; it may make sense for Artifact to try to take a cut.

looks like they have a realistic stance about content moderation too

well I signed up for the private beta, definitely interested to try it out once I get in.

It's on HN now https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34597125

Maybe you should message them

If they're smart they'd invest in you anyway, healthy competition

Hm, could be worth a shot!

I got access to this. It's alright; definitely a totally different thing from Yakread though. You don't subscribe to anything with it. So far it only curates stuff from mainstream media outlets; I'm not sure if e.g. random blogs would ever be on there. Maybe they're planning to change that in the future; but it seems pretty clear that mainstream news is the main priority. I haven't seen any comments or discussion features in the app, I guess those are still being built. It's also reminded me of how utterly terrible it is to read articles on news websites. When you click on an article in the app, it loads the article from the original site in an in-app browser thing, and the UX is just atrocious. Sticky banner ads and autoplaying videos everywhere. Thankfully there's a reader mode, but you have to click the menu icon to get to it on each new article you read. Native newsletter ads really are a shining example of how ads don't have to suck IMO; I think publisher websites like these are a big part of what gives advertising such a bad name.