Report: Reddit Selling Data for AI Training

Just before its $5 billion initial public offering (IPO) in March, Reddit reportedly signed a $60 million deal with a major undisclosed AI company. This move could be seen as a final effort to showcase potential revenue streams from the rapidly growing artificial intelligence industry to potential investors. While Reddit has not confirmed the agreement, this decision could have significant implications. If true, it would mean that Reddit's vast user-generated content treasure trove, including posts from popular subreddits, comments from well-known and lesser-known users, and discussions on various topics, could be used to train and enhance existing large-scale language models or lay the foundation for developing new generative AI systems. However, Reddit's decision may not be welcomed by its user base, as the company's recent business decisions have faced increasing opposition from the community. Last year, when Reddit announced plans to start charging for access to its application programming interface (API), thousands of Reddit forums temporarily shut down in protest. A few days later, a group of Reddit hackers threatened to release previously stolen website data unless the company reversed its API plans or paid a $4.5 million ransom. Reddit has also made other controversial decisions recently, such as deleting years of private chat logs and messages from user accounts. The platform has implemented new automated moderation features and removed the option for users to opt out of personalized ads, further exacerbating dissatisfaction among users. According to reports, the latest sale of Reddit data for AI training could trigger even more opposition from users, as ethical concerns about using public data, artwork, and other human creations to train AI systems are increasingly intensifying across industries and platforms.