During its 20-year existence, Reddit is still proud of its title of "the most popular on the internet" - a place that gathers more than 100,000 Subreddit communities and more than 108 million daily active users.
Amid the constantly changing wave of social media with the rise of short and mobile videos, Reddit still retains its identity as a platform based on user text comments, discussing all topics from interests to social concerns.
However, the era of artificial intelligence (AI) is posing a big challenge for Reddit. AI chatbot such as ChatGPT ( OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic) or Gemini ( Google) are capable of taking data from platforms such as Reddit to train language models. As users increasingly tend to ask questions directly to chatbots instead of searching through forums, Reddit's position on the internet is under threat.
According to CNBC, CEO Steve Huffman has admitted this, but believes it is also an opportunity. He believes that data and information from the Reddit community will be different from lifeless answers compiled by AI. There will always be a need for people to talk to each other, that is the strength we will focus on, Huffman said.
However, according to Ms. Ann Smarty - a consumer awareness monitoring expert, today's users prioritize convenience and "there is no simpler way to find answers than asking for ChatGPT". The trend of un clicked searches is changing user behavior on the internet.
Faced with the risk of data exploitation, Reddit has recently filed a lawsuit against AI Anthropic, accusing it of illegally collecting content from subreddit to train large language models without permission. Reddit said the behavior was illegal and unfair, and interfered with the contractual relationship between Reddit and users.
Unlike other copyright litigations, Reddit focuses on protecting user data assets. According to Jason Bloom, an intellectual property expert at Haynes Boone, hands-on discussions on Reddit help chatbots create more natural responses than learning from textbooks.
Although Reddit has a data licensing deal with OpenAI and Google, the lawsuit is aimed at Anthropic for collecting data without a commercial signature. Using data for commercial purposes requires payment, CEO Reddit emphasized on the podcast The Best One yet.
