buzzfeed made the disappointing announcement during last week’s earnings call, acknowledging that there is “substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern” and that it is “actively exploring strategic options” to address “liquidity challenges.”
The company remains burdened by debt and reported a net loss of $57.3 million in 2025. And by most indications, the company has yet to reinvent itself to stop the drain.
This report was submitted approximately three years later. buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti first announced that the company was ramping up its AI efforts, but the news was met with reactions ranging from skepticism to outright disgust.
And at this year’s SXSW in Austin, Texas, the company made good on Peretti’s threat to bring a slew of “AI apps” to market. This is the culmination of years of chasing uninspired AI slop and watering down Pulitzer Prize-winning apps. buzzfeed news Split.
buzzfeed Executives demonstrated two products under the umbrella of a new consumer spinoff called Branch Office: BF Island. BF Island and Conjure are group chats built around an AI image editor and an amazing BeReal clone, respectively.
as tech crunch According to reports, demos of the two apps were conducted to shocking noises. This is not at all surprising, given that the public backlash against AI continues to grow and cannot be ignored. After the company explained how Conjure asks users to take photos with their smartphones based on everyday cryptic prompts, such as a nondescript photo of the sky, the audience was clearly confused.
“We didn’t get it, and clearly the audience didn’t either.” tech crunchwrites Sara Perez. “After the demonstration, I heard someone coughing in the silence, followed by audible laughter.”
A quick read of the official description of the upcoming app doesn’t give you much idea of what you’re getting by joining Conjure or BF Island.
“Every day, Conjure sends you a subpoena to be photographed,” the company writes. “You submit your photo as an offering. Something on the other side accepts it. Or it doesn’t. There’s no explanation.”
buzzfeed wants to leverage “callbacks, bits, and references that only reach seven people in a thread” in its BF Island app, ostensibly an instant AI slop generator based on current memes.
“BF Island lets you visualize everything, drop a photo, add a riff, and spin it into something your friends will forget,” the company writes. “There’s no algorithm. There’s no followers. Just your people.”
Confusingly, Peretti claims to encourage the creation of more AI slop as a meaningful response to the “disruption of production” caused by AI.
“If you don’t have a vision for your content, you’re going to receive a sloppy feed,” he said in a statement that was opaque, as if the AI had generated it itself. “The values have changed. It’s about community, culture and taste.”
Needless to say, the abysmal performance at SXSW was a seemingly desperate plea for relevance and a strong sign that the company was grasping at straws to capitalize on the AI hype, but it certainly didn’t inspire much confidence, especially after the company’s brutal reality check last week.
That means Peretti’s continued belief that AI is the answer when it comes to social media could make it even harder for the company to regain public consciousness.
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