( CNN ) -- Nick D'Aloisio is tapping intently on his smartphone , his slight frame bookended by a dark mop of hair and bright blue sneakers . Curled into a VIP couch , he appears oblivious to the fuss going around him . Upstairs , a young blogger desperate for face time is stalking the corridors trying to catch him between interviews . Meetings are running over and a spare room has to be found for the overflow . The 18 year old is a phenomenon of the tech world , and a star speaker at this year 's LeWeb conference in Paris . D'Aloisio created Summly , an aggregation app , from his bedroom before selling it to Yahoo for a reported $ 30 million in March . He initially explored the idea to help him with his studies , identifying a need to deliver concise and accurate representation of text . In a deal that made headlines around the world , Yahoo folded the app into its own , and hired D'Aloisio as a product manager . For D'Aloisio , Summly has created a concept which can be expanded into fields like multimedia , which he 's now exploring at Yahoo . He 's also fascinated by the popularity of what he calls `` ephemerality reacting to human interaction , '' as represented by Snapchat , the app in which content vanishes after it 's been viewed . For D'Aloisio , this reflects human biology and could be a natural progression for technology . `` When we have a conversation , we forget what we say in an hour , in 24 hours , and there is this really nice retention curve , it decreases to I think 5 % , '' he says . `` There are certain kinds of conversations which you do n't necessarily want to be permanent , and it 's an interesting concept . '' As Summly crunches information , apps like Snapchat reflect the transience of human interaction -- concepts which are more intertwined than are immediately obvious , D'Aloisio says . `` When I am telling you a story , I do try and summarize it , '' he says . `` I wo n't tell you everything word for word , so again like a lot of these concepts are more intertwined then you think . You are taking human behavior , and interaction and distilling them down . '' But while Snapchat evaporates content , others leave deep data footprints , seemingly setting up a collision of ideas . `` You have wearables on one side of the spectrum , and that 's almost encouraging permanency by its very nature , this idea of archiving everything and filming everything , '' D'Aloisio says . `` Then you have almost like the antithesis , which are these very ephemeral , disappearing message services , and Snapchat , and IM and group chat ... and I do n't know how they are quite going to collide . They are coming from different sides of the spectrum . '' D'Aloisio now spends the bulk of his time at Yahoo , although he structures his life to keep order around priorities including continued education and driving lessons . His best friends and girlfriend remain the same and as close to D'Aloisio as before he was catapulted onto the global stage . His 18th birthday last month consisted of a surprise dinner with family and friends , a low key celebration for someone who might have been tempted to reach for the finest champagne . D'Aloisio gesticulates rapidly as he articulates ideas on topics that range from linguist theory , philosophy , biology and mathematics . But he calls himself a hobbyist ; someone who wants to learn . He idolizes figures like Leonardo da Vinci , whose extraordinary talents allowed him to straddle intellectual and artistic disciplines . D'Aloisio 's current intellectual hero is Georg Cantor , a German mathematician who , in the late 1800s , proved infinity came in different sizes . `` I 'm fascinated by this form of maths , because to me trying to understand something as complex and transcendent as infinity actually ends up solving of lot of problems to do with artificial intelligence and knowledge , '' D'Aloisio says . Then he slips into teen talk , for a second . `` These figures are just kind of cool , for me anyway , obviously not cool , in like , cool , cool , but cool as in intellectually cool . '' Read more : Ray Kurzweil reveals what your future will look like . Read more : The revolution coming to a screen near you . Read more : Siri says 'dump him '
Nick D'Aloisio , now 18-years old , sold his app Summly to Yahoo for a reported $ 30 million . He is now working for Yahoo as a product manager , as the company continues its acquisition process . He sees a situation where apps like Snapchat , where information disappears , as normal human behavior . That could set up a clash with the heavy digital content of other apps .