Particle, the startup behind an AI-powered newsreader aimed at supporting publishers rather than appropriating their content, has officially expanded its offering to the web. The company launched its new Particle.news website on Tuesday, connecting users with headlines and artificial intelligence-driven summaries drawn from diverse news sources. Readers can now access a wide range of topics including Technology, Sports, Entertainment, Politics, Science, Economics, Crime, and Video Games, alongside curated selections of the day’s most popular stories featured prominently on the homepage.
With the move from solely a mobile app to a full-fledged web platform, Particle hopes to attract a broader audience of news consumers seeking streamlined access to current events enhanced through AI technology.
Similar to its mobile application, the Particle website uses advanced AI tools to assist users in quickly grasping main story points. While conventional apps typically provide simplified summaries or bullet-point key facts, Particle differentiates itself by additionally extracting notable quotations and integrating an interactive AI chatbot. These interactions—questions posed by users and responses provided by the bot—now appear on the website, although direct chatting with the AI does not yet exist for web visitors.
Another unique feature of Particle is its “entity pages,” which supply readers with comprehensive background details about key figures, places, products, or brands mentioned in articles. Words and names highlighted in headlines or briefings, such as “Trump,” “Knicks,” or “Nintendo Switch,” conveniently link users to dedicated pages offering foundational information sourced from Wikipedia, complemented by related coverage from a range of publishers.
Complementing these tools, Particle also prominently highlights the original news outlets reporting on a given story. Links to these news publishers appear directly beside the platform’s AI-curated summaries, facilitating easy navigation to original articles. Early tests of Particle’s mobile app indicated high engagement with these links, prompting the startup to forge partnerships with major media organizations including Reuters, Fortune, and AFP, whose articles now benefit from preferential display.
Additionally, Particle’s web interface incorporates convenient access to related news at the conclusion of each AI-created summary, encouraging readers to continue exploring trending stories. Sharing pages from Particle’s mobile app now directs recipients to specific landing pages online, thus increasing accessibility for readers lacking the app.
Although the integration of artificial intelligence into news production has generated significant debate—with several publishers facing criticism for deploying AI bots as substitutes for human journalists—Particle’s founders insist on leveraging AI responsibly to enhance readers’ understanding without diverting crucial web traffic away from news providers.
Particle was founded in 2023 by former Twitter Senior Director of Product Management Sara Beykpour and Marcel Molina, a seasoned engineer previously of Twitter and Tesla. The startup successfully secured $4.4 million in seed investment followed by a subsequent $10.9 million Series A funding round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Particle’s initiative fits within a broader industry trend toward harnessing AI for news summaries and reader interaction. Prominent names entering this space include Yahoo, which recently acquired Artifact—originally developed by Instagram’s founders—to improve its flagship news app through AI integration. Other major companies such as Bloomberg, Gannett (the parent company of USA Today), and The Wall Street Journal are likewise experimenting with AI-generated summaries, albeit under greater public scrutiny given their direct roles as news-reporting entities.
