Update, 22/02, 08:30 am, Laura Herijgers: Google would train its LLMs with Reddit content. Therefore, Google is said to be the AI company behind the $60 million content deal. Three people familiar with the case told Reuters. The parties involved declined to comment.
Original, 19/02, 2:08 pm, Floris Hulshoff Pol: Reddit recently signed an annual $60 million deal with an unknown AI developer. The deal gives access to all published content on the platform. With this, Reddit aims to raise its corporate value ahead of an upcoming IPO, reports Bloomberg.
According to Bloomberg, Reddit recently signed a contract with an AI developer to use all content on the community platform to train its AI models. The contract is worth $60 million annually. The name of the AI developer was not disclosed.
Other content deals
The move is not entirely surprising because AI developers like to use content from these types of platforms and news organizations to optimize their AI models. This helps chatbots provide more recent and accurate answers. OpenAI, for example, signed a deal with German publishing group Axel Springer for this purpose in December 2023. It is also said to be in talks with news organizations such as CNN, Fox and Time for the use of their content.
So far, many news organizations are blocking scrapers that extract content from their websites for AI modelling. This is done, for example, by the New York Times.
Also read: Reddit risks losing its identity in pursuit of profits
Rising the stock market value
According to Bloomberg, the content deal would be of interest to Reddit to raise its corporate value. This is because it plans to go public soon. In 2023, the platform already posted revenue of $800 million, and being able to benefit from the AI boom could win over new investors.
Exactly when Reddit will go public is not known. In rumours, the month of March is circulating. Meanwhile, a consortium of investment banks is said to be already preparing the IPO.