Just about every major company is implementing AI technology into their products. Yahoo, a company that basically owned the internet back in the early 2000s is still alive and kicking. It recently revamped the Yahoo News app from top to bottom, and it brings some powerful AI tools. Unfortunately, this comes with a feature that Google is catching flack for.
While the name Yahoo isn’t tossed around as much as it used to be, the company is a major news brand. In fact, its news site gets more than 185 million visitors every month. The company has its own app to curate news feeds that you can download. Recently, the company announced that it revamped Yahoo News from the ground up. This revamp comes with some new AI chops.
Yahoo revamped its news app
Before digging into the app, a little history lesson. Last year, Instagram’s cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger developed an app called Artifact. It was a news app that used artificial intelligence to curate news feeds for users. It was an interesting idea but ultimately ill-fated. Not long after launching, the company had to shutter the app due to a lack of growth. Well, Yahoo dug up the remains of Artifact and implemented its technology into the Yahoo News app.
So, the Yahoo News app will use the AI technology that the Artifact app was using. With it, it will be able to intelligently curate news stories catered to users. The stories will be based on the users’ specific preferences. That’s a great thing, as people don’t like seeing news stories that don’t interest them. If you’re into all of the latest discoveries in quantum physics, you don’t want to see stories about which teams are going to the playoffs.
That’s cool, but Yahoo is following Google’s footsteps
AI technology is a pretty divisive topic, and one of the things that really emphasizes its bad side is its potential to ruin industries. It’s already had an impact on the art industry with artists losing their jobs.
AI is poised to do a number on the news industry, and this is because of AI Overviews. This is the technology that provides AI-generated summaries of web searches that you make. So, rather than going to websites with relevant information and contributing to their ad revenue, you’re free to bypass this and get the information served to you instantly.
Obviously, this tactic can cost thousands of people their jobs. News sites depend on revenue from ads to, ya know, exist. So, search engines stealing traffic away from news sites just to shove their AI technology down people’s throats doesn’t sit well with the industry.
What does this have to do with Yahoo?
Well, along with adding AI-curated news stories, the revamped Yahoo app also brings AI-generated overviews of news topics. It doesn’t take a genius to know why that’s messed up. The Yahoo News app is an app to be taken to the latest news stories. It’s a portal to be taken to those news sites. Being such a huge news brand, it’s been the bread and butter of several news websites. However, it’s pulling the same stunt that Google pulled with AI Overviews. Now, people will have a fast track to skipping relevant news sites.
What makes this worse is that the purpose of the app is to go to news sites. Bringing AI summaries defeats the purpose of the app itself. It’s a bit more understandable for Google (only a bit) because you go to Google for broad knowledge whether it be from a news site, video site, blog, etc. So, getting Overviews isn’t as much of a slap to the face of news organizations because there’s always the chance that you’re not looking for news. However, that’s not saying much to Google’s credit.
In the case of the Yahoo News app, it’s built to show you news stories. You’re more than likely going to the app to be taken to news sites. So, this AI tool has more of an effect on the news sites it’s curating news from.
This points to a bad trend
The fact that Yahoo is bringing this tool hints at something potentially worrying. Google got flack for bringing AI summaries of stories. So, what does Meta do soon after? The same thing. It shows that, despite the public outcry, it’s still going through with its plans.
Well, Yahoo is no different. Now, there’s another company taking viewers from news websites without considering what the majority of people are saying. It’s just like how OpenAI is pushing to bring AI video generation into Hollywood, even though ANYONE can see how that will negatively affect the industry. We’re talking about major Hollywood studios like Disney and Warner Brothers. This is despite everyone’s worries.
The fact that Yahoo, a company that has so much sway over the news industry chose to bring a tool that can have such a devastating effect on the news industry shows that this could be a big trend. So far, we’ve seen AI summaries with Google Search, Meta AI, and Brave Browser’s default search engine. Companies are interested in expediting the acquisition of knowledge to fool people into thinking that taking a minute to read a post takes too long.
The more people who adopt and prop up their products, the happier the all-mighty investors will be. At the end of the day, that’s what’s important; money. Yahoo revamped its news app, which is always a good thing, but we’ll have to see if the AI summaries will be well-received.