For nearly two decades, Reddit has amassed a vast collection of human interactions and conversations that have served as a prime location for companies to train their AI chatbots, also known as large language models. However, the social media giant now wants a share of the lucrative AI market and has announced plans to charge companies for API access, which is necessary for LLM training.
Despite the fact that major players like Google and OpenAI use Reddit to provide initial guidance for their AI services, the company believes that they should be compensated for the valuable data they provide. Reddit has introduced a new premium access point for third parties, with pricing structured into different tiers to accommodate companies of varying sizes.
While Common Crawl and other data scrapers are also used to train large language models, Reddit offers a unique advantage with its human conversations, which are essential for developing person-like behavior and factual accuracy in AI. Reddit’s API is also regularly utilized for content moderation tools, and the company plans to create iOS and Android apps dedicated to this purpose, free of charge for content moderators.
The move to monetize their data comes as the AI industry continues to rapidly expand, and Reddit looks to capitalize on this trend with rumors of an impending IPO later this year. It’s a smart business decision to create a new revenue stream ahead of a public offering.
