Reddit and OpenAI have struck a licensing agreement to use content from the social media platform to train its products, including its chatbot ChatGPT.
The partnership will give Microsoft-backed OpenAI access to Reddit’s data application programming interface, which will allow it to access data and server software and learn from it in real time, Reddit said in a blog post published Thursday. Reddit content will be featured in ChatGPT and other products as part of the agreement, and redditors and moderators will gain new AI-powered features, the company said. The deal also involves an advertising partnership.
“Reddit has become one of the internet’s largest open archives of authentic, relevant, and always up to date human conversations about anything and everything,” said Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman in a statement. “Including it in ChatGPT upholds our belief in a connected internet, helps people find more of what they’re looking for, and helps new audiences find community on Reddit.”
In the first quarter of 2024, Reddit had 82.7 million daily active unique visitors. It was the fifth-most visited social media site in 2023, according to Lifesight.
Reddit stock popped 10% in pre-market trading on Friday on the news.
This is OpenAI’s first partnership with a social media site, but forms part of an ever-growing list of high-profile media partnerships for the AI company. These are some of the other organizations that have shaken hands with the ChatGPT-maker in the name of innovation.
🗞️ The Associated Press
The AP and OpenAI struck a deal last July to license AP’s trove of news stories dating back to 1985 to help improve its AI systems. While the AP doesn’t employ generative AI in its own journalistic practices, it said it has used other forms of AI for almost a decade.
📰 Axel Springer
German media giant Axel Springer — the owner of Politico, Business Insider, and European outlets Bild and Welt — partnered with OpenAI in December. The licensing deal allows ChatGPT to display summaries of global news content from Axel Springer’s media brands in its answers, including attribution and links to full articles.
As part of the collaboration, OpenAI’s so-called large language models (LLMs) can use Axel Springer’s publications for training and development.
🌐 Le Monde
Le Monde, a French media organization, struck a multi-year agreement with OpenAI, giving it access to the newspaper’s work to enhance the reliability of ChatGPT’s responses. In return, Le Monde said, it would receive “a significant source of additional revenue.”
💰 The Financial Times
The business news outlet announced last month that it had reached an agreement with OpenAI to use its journalism to help train and inform ChatGPT models and collaborate to develop new AI features for FT readers. The partnership gives ChatGPT users the ability to view summaries, quotes, and links to FT journalism in response to relevant queries.
🔵 Dotdash Meredith
The largest digital and print publisher in the U.S. — whose portfolio includes People, Food & Wine, InStyle, Investopedia, and others — announced a partnership with the AI company earlier this month. Dotdash said its sprawling portfolio will enhance ChatGPT with its content, from recipes to expert health and financial information, and style and entertainment content.