OpenAI Secures Reddit Content for ChatGPT Improvement

Reddit announced a partnership to deliver content from its platform to the well-known chatbot ChatGPT. 

Shares of the social media site surged 12% during extended trading on Thursday after the firm’s announcement.

Reddit will Provide Access to Its Authentic Content

In addition to building on its recent collaboration with Alphabet to make its material available for Google’s AI model training, the deal also highlights Reddit’s efforts to expand its revenue streams beyond its advertising business.

Reddit Co-Founder and CEO, Steve Huffman, said in a statement,

“Reddit has become one of the internet’s largest open archives of authentic, relevant, and always up-to-date human conversations about anything and everything.”

He also added,

“Including it in ChatGPT upholds our belief in a connected internet, helps people find more of what they’re looking for, and helps new audiences find community on Reddit.”

Source: Reddit.

As a result of the new collaboration, ChatGPT and other OpenAI products will make use of Reddit’s application programming interface, which is how Reddit shares content. 

OpenAI will Enable AI Features on Reddit

OpenAI will also work with Reddit for advertising, the business announced. 

Brad Lightcap, OpenAI COO, said

“We are thrilled to partner with Reddit to enhance ChatGPT with uniquely timely and relevant information and to explore the possibilities of enriching the Reddit experience with AI-powered features.”

Previously, before Reddit went public in March, Reuters revealed that Reddit had signed an agreement with Alphabet for an annual payment of roughly $60 million.

Also read: Reddit may sue AI firms if business conversations fail

To generate income outside of Reddit’s advertising business, investors see selling its data to train AI models as a major opportunity. 

The social media giant’s efforts to expand its ad business and close the Google merger appeared to be paying off, as it earlier this month announced robust revenue growth and rising profitability in its first earnings since going public.

After the bell, shares of Reddit increased 10.5%, closing at $62.31. The stock had increased by about 12% as of Wednesday’s close compared to its March market debut.

Reddit’s major shareholder and former board member, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has a stake worth approximately $750 million following Thursday’s market explosion.

Reddit Users are Voicing Their Opinions

Reddit knows that there is a privacy stigma attached to AI practices, so the company also highlighted in its announcement of the deal that it maintains that privacy is a right. 

In addition, Reddit’s Data API Terms and Developer Terms—which stipulate that content obtained through Reddit’s Data API cannot be utilized for commercial purposes without Reddit’s consent—remain unchanged as a result of this cooperation, as the social media site made clear. 

A Reddit user commented on a post mentioning the deal,

“This is why they got rid of the third-party apps. Licensing Reddit comments as training data for AI will be much more profitable in the future. This is why Reddit was never going to back down in those protests last year.”

Another user said,

“Do I get a cut if they are training based on my comments?”

Source: Reddit.

Under the published threshold set by the company, API access is still free for non-commercial use.

The social platform recently released its Public Content Policy, which it says is to enable communities, developers, and researchers to better understand how Reddit views user protections and access permissions to public content.

Also read: 8 US newspapers drag OpenAI and Microsoft into court for copyright violations

Reddit also said that the new partnership will make it possible for the platform to bring new AI capabilities to Redditors and moderators, and it will expand upon OpenAI’s artificial intelligence platform.

Cryptopolitan reporting by Aamir Sheikh