OpenAI blends ‘authentic’ Reddit content into AI training data

OpenAI will train AI models based on content from social discussion platform Reddit, the two companies jointly announced on Thursday. Reddit, which describes itself as “an important space for Internet conversation,” said the agreement will expand the scope of OpenAI’s Large Language Model (LLM) corpus and improve user experience.

“This partnership will allow Reddit to provide new AI-based features to Reddit users and mods.” OpenAI will “better understand and showcase Reddit content, especially on recent topics,” the company explained.

Shares of Reddit (RDDT) briefly surged more than 14% in after-hours trading following the announcement. The company’s shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on March 21.

In a footnote at the end of its blog post about the deal, OpenAI noted that CEO Sam Altman is a Reddit shareholder. It also said the deal was led by OpenAI’s Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap and was approved by its independent board of directors.

“Reddit has become one of the Internet’s largest public archives of authentic, relevant, and always-up-to-date human conversation about everything,” Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman said in a statement. “Including this in ChatGPT sustains our belief in a connected internet, helps people find more of what they want, and helps new audiences find community on Reddit.”

According to Reddit, OpenAI will use Reddit’s data API to pull Reddit content into ChatGPT and other unnamed products. The partnership also allows Reddit to use OpenAI’s technology to develop new AI features while also making OpenAI a Reddit advertising partner.

“We are excited to work with Reddit to enrich ChatGPT with unique, timely and relevant information and explore the potential to enrich the Reddit experience with AI-powered features,” Lightcap said in a statement.

OpenAI further rejected the partnership. Reddit did not immediately respond to a request for comment. decoding.

The deal between OpenAI and Reddit comes in the same week that OpenAI and Google made several major announcements about their respective AI tools.

On Monday, OpenAI released an update to ChatGPT, including a new, faster model called GPT-4o. At its annual Google I/O event on Tuesday, Google highlighted several new AI-powered features for its Gemini brand, including expanded capabilities for its suite of business tools.

The OpenAI deal isn’t the first time Reddit has leveraged its extensive discussion library. Last February, Reddit signed a deal with rival AI developer Google, giving the tech giant access to its extensive content library. The partnership later prompted an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Reddit said the following month.

“FTC staff is conducting a private investigation focused on the sale, licensing, or sharing of user-generated content with third parties to train AI models,” Reddit said in the filing. “We do not believe that we have engaged in unfair or deceptive trade practices.”

News of the deal between OpenAI and Reddit did not sit well with many on social media, with many commenters criticizing the site’s more provocative and controversial communities.

“Reddit’s hive mind is a bunch of basement-dwelling unemployed socialists,” Trustswap CEO Jeff Kirdeikis wrote on Twitter. “If you thought (OpenAI) was biased before… ”

“I’m glad to see that the search feature comes with Reddit filters,” said technology educator Paul Couvert.

“There’s a lot of misinformation and bias out there. It’s a disaster waiting to happen,” said author and entrepreneur Che Rodney.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.