Reddit's filing with the SEC makes clear that training AI with user posts is a core part of Reddit's new business model.

Reddit said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission that its users’ posts are “a valuable source of conversation data and knowledge” that has been and will continue to be an important mechanism for training AI and large language models. The filing also states that the company believes “we are in the early stages of monetizing our user base,” and proceeds to say that it will continue to sell users’ content to companies that want to train LLMs and that it will also begin “increased use of artificial intelligence in our advertising solutions.”

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Reddit has entered a contract with Google, which will license its content for $60 million a year in order to train Google’s AI models.

  • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zipEnglish
    42·
    9 months ago

    Reddit notes that it’s screwed if moderators decide they no longer want to do this free labor, and notes that last year the company’s decision to change its API policies caused many of them to do exactly that.

    A lot of the good mods already walked back in July. Wonder what it’ll take for most of the rest to throw in the towel.

    • Pixelemme@lemm.eeEnglish
      21·
      9 months ago

      I would think there are still plenty people who like having the power of being a “moderator” and would be willing to do it for free. So even though reddit lost plenty of mods, there will still be people who’d continue doing it.

      • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.ccEnglish
        13·
        9 months ago

        Lots of mod also can’t let go the community they spend years to build. Not an easy task to just leave. Though i know of some that already partially leave the platform and only occasionally check it

        • Pixelemme@lemm.eeEnglish
          9·
          9 months ago

          That’s true as well. I understand the emotional connection I would have had if I was part of the community from the beginning. It is not easy to build communities and also be responsible for it. I was not pointing at such folks.

      • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        5·
        9 months ago

        The quality went down, though.

        Because the ones doing the best jobs were leveraging the hell out of third party tools to make their jobs easier.

      • Simon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        I mean how many people volunteer to moderate Facebook. Once the site is mainsteam and fundamentally uncool to have a job at, few in their right mind are going to give up their time for free.

        • Pixelemme@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          Yep. But that is something that we have to wait and see. Understanding people has become tricky nowadays. Reddit may as well use bots for moderation and project them as actual users to show a false narrative. Anyways we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.