Reddit, Inc. has reportedly struck a $60m deal with Google. In terms of this agreement, the world’s preferred search engine can access and use Reddit comments and conversations to train its embedded artificial intelligence (AI). Similarly, Reddit will be able to access Google AI models to improve its internal search functionality.
Reddit strikes AI deal with Google
Reddit issued a statement on its website saying:
With this partnership, and via our Data API, we’re ushering in new ways for Reddit content to be displayed across Google products by providing programmatic access to new, constantly evolving, and dynamic public posts, comments, etc., on Reddit.
The social network forum also filed its intention to go public with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday, 22 February 2024. Reddit indicated that it plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker RDDT.
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The platform’s volunteer moderators reportedly objected to previous plans allowing third-party paid access to content on the site. This shines a spotlight on the Google deal, with one user commenting:
There will be more of these deals coming now, which is good. But there is a distinct question about who is paying the humans that create this content….
According to a source familiar with the matter, the agreement does not imply any data-driven alterations. As opposed to other social media platforms, Reddit does not employ algorithms to ‘guesstimate’ what users would like to see or read. They just search for topics of interest and join an applicable forum.
While some sources did not elaborate on the details of this deal, others, such as the New York Post, claimed that Google would pay Reddit $60m per year.
