Reddit and Google have reached an agreement that lets the search engine giant train its artificial intelligence models on posts from the online discussion platform, Reddit, in order to enhance products like online search.
Reddit will have access to Google AI models through the agreement, which was revealed on Thursday and is estimated to be worth $60 million, in order to enhance its site search and other features.
The San Francisco-based business also revealed details about its Wednesday initial public offering. According to Reddit’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company reported net income of USD 18.5 million for the October–December quarter on revenue of USD 249.8 million, marking its first profit in two years. According to the company, its goal is to list its shares under the ticker symbol RDDT on the New York Stock Exchange.
Reddit, which depends on sometimes-contentious volunteer moderators to manage its vast array of rambling topic-based discussions, is taking a big step forward with the Google deal. These moderators have openly disagreed with past Reddit decisions, most notably when Reddit declared that it would begin charging numerous third-party apps for access to its content, causing a major blackout of the website for several days.
It is also very important for Google, which is desperate for human-written content to feed its AI models, which will help them gain a better “understanding” of the world and be better able to respond to queries in a conversational manner.
Reddit is a storehouse for “an incredible breadth of authentic, human conversations and experiences,” according to a Google news release that also emphasized the company’s primary goal of “making it even easier for people to benefit from that useful information.” Google downplayed its interest in using Reddit data to train its AI systems, focusing instead on how Reddit information, like product recommendations and travel tips, will be “even easier” for users to access through Google products.
The process is referred to as “more content-forward displays of Reddit information” and is intended to improve Google’s tools as well as make it simpler for users to interact with Reddit.
