Reddit has negotiated a content material licensing deal to permit its information for use for coaching AI fashions, in response to a Bloomberg report.
Simply forward of a possible $5 billion preliminary public providing (IPO) debut in March, Reddit has reportedly signed a $60 million cope with an undisclosed main AI firm. This transfer may very well be seen as a last-minute effort to showcase potential income streams within the quickly rising AI trade to potential buyers.
Though Reddit has but to substantiate the deal, the choice might have vital implications. If true, it could imply that Reddit’s huge trove of user-generated content material – together with posts from in style subreddits, feedback from each outstanding and obscure customers, and discussions on a variety of subjects – may very well be used to coach and improve present giant language fashions (LLMs) or present the inspiration for the event of recent generative AI methods.
Nonetheless, this resolution by Reddit might not sit effectively with its person base, as the corporate has confronted rising opposition from its neighborhood relating to its current enterprise selections.
Final yr, when Reddit introduced plans to begin charging for entry to its utility programming interfaces (APIs), 1000’s of Reddit boards briefly shut down in protest. Days later, a gaggle of Reddit hackers threatened to launch beforehand stolen website information except the corporate reversed the API plan or paid a ransom of $4.5 million.
Reddit has not too long ago made different controversial selections, reminiscent of eradicating years of personal chat logs and messages from customers’ accounts. The platform additionally carried out new computerized moderation options and eliminated the choice for customers to show off personalised promoting, fuelling extra discontent amongst its customers.
This newest reported deal to promote Reddit’s information for AI coaching might generate much more backlash from customers, as the talk over the ethics of utilizing public information, artwork, and different human-created content material to coach AI methods continues to accentuate throughout varied industries and platforms.
(Photograph by Brett Jordan on Unsplash)
See additionally: Amazon trains 980M parameter LLM with ’emergent talents’
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