On Friday, Bloomberg reported that Reddit has signed a contract permitting an unnamed AI firm to coach its fashions on the positioning’s content material, in response to folks acquainted with the matter. The transfer comes because the social media platform nears the introduction of its preliminary public providing (IPO), which might occur as quickly as subsequent month.
Reddit initially revealed the deal, which is reported to be price $60 million a yr, earlier in 2024 to potential buyers of an anticipated IPO, Bloomberg stated. The Bloomberg supply speculates that the contract might function a mannequin for future agreements with different AI corporations.
After an period the place AI corporations utilized AI coaching knowledge with out expressly in search of any rightsholder permission, some tech corporations have extra lately begun getting into offers the place some content material used for coaching AI fashions just like GPT-4 (which runs the paid model of ChatGPT) comes below license. In December, for instance, OpenAI signed an settlement with German writer Axel Springer (writer of Politico and Enterprise Insider) for entry to its articles. Beforehand, OpenAI has struck offers with different organizations, together with the Related Press. Reportedly, OpenAI can also be in licensing talks with CNN, Fox, and Time, amongst others.
In April 2023, Reddit founder and CEO Steve Huffman informed The New York Instances that it deliberate to cost AI corporations for entry to its virtually twenty years’ price of human-generated content material.
If the reported $60 million/yr deal goes by means of, it is fairly potential that for those who’ve ever posted on Reddit, a few of that materials could also be used to coach the subsequent era of AI fashions that create textual content, nonetheless footage, and video. Even with out the deal, consultants have found up to now that Reddit has been a key supply of coaching knowledge for giant language fashions and AI picture turbines.
Whereas we do not know if OpenAI is the corporate that signed the take care of Reddit, Bloomberg speculates that Reddit’s potential to faucet into AI hype for added income could increase the worth of its IPO, which is perhaps price $5 billion. Regardless of drama final yr, Bloomberg states that Reddit pulled in additional than $800 million in income in 2023, rising about 20 p.c over its 2022 numbers.
Advance Publications, which owns Ars Technica guardian Condé Nast, is the biggest shareholder of Reddit.
