Reddit was found to be selling user content under a new deal with an unnamed AI company, with the social news aggregator platform receiving as much as $60 million per year on this transaction. The platform is selling its user content and information to help the AI company amass data needed for training its model/s, with the public still in the dark regarding this deal.
Under this deal, Reddit is allowing the said AI company to use their website's data and user content for their needs, unlike the known controversy of AI taking things from the internet without permission.
Reddit Sells User Content for $60M to AI Company
(Photo : Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Bloomberg's recent report highlights a new deal from Reddit to an unknown AI company, saying that the company offers the user content found on the platform, sold for $60 million per year. This contract allows the AI company to access the said data and use it for model training as revealed by people familiar with the transaction.
Moreover, it was regarded by Bloomberg that Reddit did this to maximize its value in the market, centering on its aspirations for an IPO (initial public offering).
In this move, Reddit is making the user content easily and directly accessible to the anonymous AI company that asked for it, but only available for a certain contract fee. It also means that the said AI company has access to Reddit's social media platform content all year round.
Through this deal, the AI company will have access to user's content on Reddit, centering on the human-generated content on the platform, and is a legitimate transaction. It is unlike the infamous controversy behind AI companies going on the internet and scraping data from the web without asking for permission from websites or the people behind them.
AI Training Content Access
The massive concern behind AI's access to personal data that is widely available on the internet is among the top controversies with it, especially as companies behind them are regarded as not asking for consent in their data use. Various reports found different companies doing so, with Microsoft among the notorious ones, with one AI project using as much as 38 terabytes of personal data.
However, Reddit is one of those companies that are looking to take advantage of this situation, with the platform's renowned shift towards asking for a certain fee for its API access taking effect last year. From businesses to developers, down to AI companies seeking Reddit's data, they are all required to pay the company for human-generated content.
With Reddit's shift towards priced access to its API, many developers dropped out and stopped creating the apps specific to the platform which saw massive outrage before. Now, a recent report claimed that Reddit is leveraging user content for an AI company to use, yet another controversy that sheds light on these shadowy transactions, earning a massive $60 million per year for it.
