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Reddit Signs $60 Million Deal to Scrape Your Online Community for AI Parts: Report

Feb 20, 2024 - gizmodo.com
Reddit has reportedly signed a $60 million deal with an unnamed "large AI company" to allow its online communities to be scraped for AI training data. The AI company will use millions of Reddit posts to train a large language model. This move has been met with backlash, with popular subreddits going dark in protest last year after Reddit began charging for access to its API. Despite this, Reddit is considering an IPO with a $5 billion valuation, even though it only brought in $800 million in revenue last year.

The platform has also introduced ads and made it impossible for users to opt out of seeing advertiser content in 2023. As Reddit moves towards becoming a public company, there are concerns that management decisions could harm the community forum. There are also broader concerns about how AI companies are licensing data, with content creators not being compensated for their work, even as AI threatens to replace them in various industries.

Key takeaways:

  • Reddit has reportedly signed a $60 million deal with a large, unnamed AI company to allow its online communities to be scraped for AI training data.
  • Reddit is considering an IPO with a $5 billion valuation, despite only generating $800 million in revenue last year and not being profitable.
  • Reddit's decision to charge for API access, including to small, independent researchers, has sparked controversy and protest among its user base and moderators.
  • There are growing concerns about how AI companies are licensing data, with content creators not benefiting from million-dollar licensing agreements, and the potential for AI to replace jobs in the editorial, graphic design, and film industries.
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