Yahoo Expands AI Integration with New Summaries Feature

In a bid to rejuvenate its offerings, Yahoo continues its foray into artificial intelligence, recently launching a series of AI-powered features. Following enhancements to Yahoo Mail, including a prioritization system akin to Gmail's Priority Inbox and AI-generated email summaries, the company now sets its sights on Yahoo News. This comes in the wake of the AI-powered overhaul of its Yahoo News app, leveraging technology from Artifact, a recent acquisition.

Code discovered on the redesigned Yahoo News website reveals that Yahoo is experimenting with an AI summaries feature. This tool is designed to provide visitors with concise overviews of news articles, allowing for a quick catch-up on current events without the need for in-depth reading. Despite drawing inspiration from Artifact's approach to AI, the summaries feature on the Yahoo News website is distinct from the technology developed by Artifact's creators, who were previously behind the popular app launched by Instagram's founders. That app ultimately ceased operations after failing to capture a broad audience.

Yahoo confirmed to TechCrunch that the AI summaries have been in a testing phase for several months. These tests are limited to a small, single-digit percentage of article pages on the Yahoo News web platform. As a result, the majority of users are unlikely to have encountered these summaries yet. The company did not disclose detailed information about the underlying technology driving the AI summaries, nor did it provide a timeline for a broader public rollout. However, Yahoo has a known partnership with OpenAI for its mobile app, suggesting a possible collaboration on the web feature as well.

The AI summaries appear to visitors in a lightbox format, a web component often used to display content prominently. This user-friendly design aims to enhance the reading experience by making summarized content easily accessible.

Yahoo's strategy reflects a broader trend of integrating AI to revamp established web products and services. The recent updates to Yahoo Mail and the AI-powered revamp of Yahoo News underscore the company's commitment to leveraging artificial intelligence for improving user engagement and functionality. Whether these AI enhancements will attract a new audience remains to be seen, but they represent a significant effort by Yahoo to stay relevant in the competitive digital news and email service markets.

As the tech industry continues to embrace AI, Yahoo's moves indicate a clear intent to be at the forefront of this evolution. The success of these features will likely influence other companies considering similar integrations. For now, Yahoo users can look forward to more streamlined and efficient ways to consume news and manage their communications, thanks to the ongoing incorporation of AI technologies.