Will Artifact Replicate TikTok's Viral Success?
Artifact - created by Instagram's co-founders - is attempting to build a TikTok like algorithm to create virality for articles. Could this be the next dominant social media platform?
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger - the visionary co-founders of Instagram - have taken a long sabbatical from development, but they’re back with the aim of crafting the next groundbreaking social media platform, Artifact. Krieger took to Instagram describing artifact as “a personalized news feed driven by the latest in artificial intelligence.” Their “cutting-edge” algorithm leverages machine learning to personalize your news feed by comprehending your unique interests and curating content based on your engagement patterns. The app is currently in private beta. However, users can join the waitlist to be next in line when a new position opens up. Is this simply a text-based imitation of TikTok primed to fail, or does it have the potential to become the next dominant social platform?
Much like TikTok, upon opening the app, users are presented with a stream of handpicked, popular articles from a diverse range of publishers - from renowned news giants like the New York Times to niche blogs with a specific audience. By engaging with articles that capture your interest, Artifact will continually refine its algorithm to curate content that aligns with your preferences, much like TikTok's For You page becomes tailored to your taste through continuous video viewing.
Amidst the plethora of tech firms striving to replicate TikTok's success through short-form video content, the response to Artifact has been remarkably positive. There seems to be a warm embrace of a new platform that (for once) does NOT prioritize endless one-finger scrolling, evoking a sense of nostalgia for a refreshing change of pace. Despite its promise, this concept has not been immune to criticism, with some asserting that it is simply another doomed "curated article" app destined for failure.
The differences between Artifact and the plethora of similar curated-news sites such as Zite, Pulse, and SmartNews are two-fold:
Systrom and Krieger’s use of The Google Transformer. The Google Transformer is a deep learning model developed by researchers at Google back in 2017. It's a type of neural network architecture designed for processing sequential data, such as natural language, music, or time series. It allows systems to understand language using far fewer inputs than previous methods had. Concepts housed within the Google Transformer even aided in the efficiency of applications like ChatGPT.
Their proprietary algorithm holds sole discretion over the exact content presented to you, rather than external elements like your follow list, friends network, and engagement history. Both Instagram and Facebook have faced difficulties as a result of their failure to prioritize the algo's decision-making power in determining the content displayed to users. Artifact is not about to make that same mistake.
But will this be enough to captivate a populace so inclined toward audio / video content - especially considering the younger generation’s propensity for video-based entertainment over text. Speculation has arisen that Artifact’s feature set as it stands now will not be enough to rise through the ranks of the social media titans and stake its claim as a dominant player. Time will tell whether or not Artifact’s algo is robust enough to boast engagement levels comparable to those of TikTok.
Lastly, one concern from your friendly Safe<br>Space team is that of biased censorship inside Artifact. The site will allow news outlets from both sides of the political aisle, but Systrom has stated that ultimately, the company will decide who is allowed to publish and who isn’t.
“One of the issues with technology recently has been a lot of these companies’ unwillingness to make subjective judgments in the name of quality and progress for humanity,” he says “Right? Just make the hard decision.”
In this context, it's important to consider the potential implications of Artifact, a new platform that has the potential to reach millions of users. Will it be an objective source of news and information, presenting a diverse range of perspectives and viewpoints, or will it succumb to the same biases and filter bubbles that have plagued other platforms? Only time (and Safe<br>Space) will tell, as we are currently on the waitlist. The moment we are allowed on the platform, we’ll be sure to keep you posted on all things Artifact - including quality, user experience, and of course: bias.