The Yahoo News app is now available AI-assistedthanks to the company’s purchase Artifact. Yahoo on Thursday rolled out an update to its news aggregation software with AI-powered personal feeds, keynotes and the ability to flag clickable headlines.
In April, Yahoo (Engadget’s parent company) received the remains of the artifactAn AI-powered news and recommendations app from the co-founders of Instagram it closed earlier this year. Today’s update demonstrates how technology can improve Yahoo’s news feed, which brings in more than 180 million unique visitors each month in the US.
Available now on mobile and later on desktop, the new Yahoo News starts by letting you select topics and publishers of interest for its algorithms to customize your feed accordingly. One notable feature is the ability to quickly glance at a particular story’s “Key Takeaways”: a short list of key points that appear (if desired) at the top of the article to save time. This is the Yahoo version “Summary” of the artifact feature.
You can further customize your feed by blocking keywords you want to avoid (eg “NFT”) or publishers whose content you don’t like. Perhaps the most interesting feature is its ability to flag clickbait, which prompts the AI to rewrite headlines that are misleading, overly sensational, or hide critical information in the hope you’ll click. (Yes, please.)
In addition to the app, Yahoo is updating its home page layout. The updated UI “highlights top news, personalized recommendations and trending topics in real-time” and is designed to evolve over time. The company says you can opt-in to access new features (presumably many powered by artificial intelligence).
If you’re in the US, you can download the new Yahoo News app iOS or Android today.
