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

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/8775123

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.”

The long-awaited S-1 filing reveals much of what Reddit users knew and feared: That many of the changes the company has made over the last year in the leadup to an IPO are focused on exerting control over the site, sanitizing parts of the platform, and monetizing user data.

Posting here because of the privacy implications of all this, but I wonder if at some point there should be an “Enshittification” community :-)

  • @GoldenPencil@lemmy.world
    16•9 months ago

    The death of Reddit is near.

    I wonder what will be of it in a few years. A tumblr situation or completely closed down.

    • Overzeetop
      14•9 months ago

      It faces death at about the same rate as Facebook. Just like facebook, it has a huge database of information and a still-active userbase that just doesn’t care that Spez is trash or that Reddit is wringing their content and eyeballs for money. It will still be around 20 years from now, just like aol email addresses.

      • @GoldenPencil@lemmy.world
        9•9 months ago

        I do not think this is a good comparison.

        Facebook has 3 Billion active users while Reddit has about 850 million per month. Now what do each site consider as an active user will be interesting.

        Facebook also has other platforms, Instagram and threads. They also do not have significant adult content issues that Reddit has so they do very well on advertising. The very nature of the social media platforms are very different so much so that companies see it as a necessity to advertise and post on them while never considering Reddit.

        I think the more accurate comparison is Twitter/X. As they have the same adult content issues that harm their advertising. We have seen how much the value of Twitter has fallen even though it was inflated to begin with. Also they have Mastodon as the ad free competition.

        I truly believe in the end Reddit will fail but will be bought out by another company to expand their portfolio. Similarly to tumblr being bought by Matt Mullenweg who owns Wordpress. It will become someone’s money hole fun project to see if they can revive it.

        TLDR: bad comparison, reddit is gonna die bro

      • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppetEnglish
        5•9 months ago

        Facebook is sooo much worse than Reddit in this regard. It’s a hollow shell of its former self, and not even because users fled. Facebook wanted to be TikTok or something, despite being its own niche successful platform, and they completely destroyed the soul of the website. You cannot see friend’s content anymore, unless you go directly to their page. The entire feed is full of worthless and terrible group posts that you never expressed any interest in. You can’t do anything to stop it. If you block 100 groups, a million more are there to take their place. So now people have started fleeing from the site, because it’s nothing like the site they were interested in to begin with.