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BuzzFeed, the US-based media company known for its quizzes and lists, and for a while, Pulitzer Prize Winner Journalism Department, it is Reinvent itself for the age of artificial intelligence. At least, that’s the pitch.
At the SXSW conference in Austin, BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti foot The company’s next media foray: A A spin-off is called a branch officewhich will explore artificial intelligence in consumer-facing applications designed for creativity and communication.
The new company is an extension of experiments BuzzFeed has been conducting for years using artificial intelligence technology, Peretti explained, in a choppy presentation that began with errors in the slideshow, before moving on to demos of the app that were met with silence or polite laughter.
“We’ve been working on this secretly for over a year, and we’ve learned a lot from BuzzFeed about what’s coming with new types of AI formats,” Peretti said. “Using artificial intelligence is a way to connect people and build a community around the pillars of culture, taste and community.”
Bill Chodis, BuzzFeed’s chief product officer and founder of Branch Office, introduced two of the company’s new apps: BF Island and Conjure.
first product, BF Islandis a group chat platform that offers photo changing and editing features using artificial intelligence. This isn’t groundbreaking technology per se, but that’s not the point.
The key feature here isn’t the AI toolkit, but rather the in-app library of online trends and memes, created by the editorial team, that can inspire users to create AI images referencing blink-and-miss trends like a McDonald’s CEO. Burger taste testor “Frame smugglingDrama. (If you don’t know what drama is, you’re probably not the target “online” audience.)
Another app, Conjure, is similar to BeReal — the once-a-day ephemeral photo app — except it instead seems to guide users to take daily photos of things besides themselves. (For the record, BeReal itself did not last in the end Go out to voodoo after Loss of traction.) In the demo, for example, the photo prompt was “What’s between the trees and the moon?”, prompting users to take a photo of the night sky. A series of frightening images flashed on the screen, followed by a whisper: “What are you going to conjure?”
We don’t get it, and clearly the audience doesn’t get it either. After the demonstration, a single cough could be heard amid the silence, followed by uncomfortable laughter.
Shouldice then pointed out that AI is involved in Conjure as well, as the app has a “CEO AI spirit.” (Again, what?)
Peretti also introduced Quiz Party, a social app that lets you take BuzzFeed quizzes with friends and share your results.
BuzzFeed’s stunning presentation comes just days after the media company shared that it had “high doubts” About its ability to continue as a businessIt was participating in strategic talks focused on solving liquidity challenges. The company, which had a net loss of $57.3 million last year, said it will focus this year on Studio IP and new AI applications, like these.
But even the Tech Progress crowd at SXSW wasn’t convinced.
As one person pointed out during the Q&A session after the presentation, BeReal has struggled to get people to come back after the novelty wears off. What can an app like Conjure do to combat the same kind of data retention issue?
The app will evolve, “and different kinds of things will happen and it won’t be exactly the same as it is today,” Shouldice said. He noted the possibility of integrating things like video, audio, and prototyping with Claude Code to build community.
The premise behind the new apps is not unreasonable: AI can lead to faster software development, making it possible for companies to iterate more quickly and keep people engaged.
“Software is the new content in a way,” Peretti noted.
Of course, before you can iterate, you have to attract users. With its new apps, BuzzFeed appears to have thought more about what AI can do than what people want to do with AI, which is not a recipe for success.