January 29, 2025

"[Reddit] has quietly started beta-testing Reddit Answers, what it calls an 'AI-powered conversational interface'..."


"... basically an AI chatbot. On a new search screen accessible from the homepage, Reddit Answers takes anyone’s queries, trawls the site for relevant discussions and debates, and composes them into a response. In other words, a site that sells itself as a home for 'authentic human connection' is now giving humans the option to interact with an algorithm instead.... Consider, for example, requesting tips for traveling with a baby on an airplane. Reddit Answers generates a list of ideas—perhaps 'Pack Essentials' or 'Board Early'—decontextualized from the parents who gathered this wisdom, the horrifying and hilarious anecdotes in their original posts, and the heartwarming support and tips in additional responses.... [S]hould the feature really take off and Redditors stop engaging with one another, the chatbot will be drained of biological intelligence, and soul as well. It’s the same with any AI tool seeking to synthesize, summarize, and boil portions of the web to their essence: Eventually, the pot will burn dry."

Writes Matteo Wong, in "Is This How Reddit Ends? The site has become a reservoir of humanity on the web. Now it, too, is turning to AI" (The Atlantic).

16 comments:

Yancey Ward said...

Sewer isn't spelled 'reservoir'.

Lazarus said...

There's something to be said for that fear. You can find all sorts of things on Reddit from human beings with an obsessive interest in something. Much of the time they're wrong, but they do bring up things that computers haven't found yet and might not find for some time longer. If people stop digging, AI will just keep churning out the same answers.

cubanbob said...

No one needs Reddit for AI. Grok or ChatGPT can do it already. Besides, if Reddit goes AI, will the AI create the Am I The Asshole content?

Enigma said...

This sounds like the old "have an affair" Ashley Madison site -- get fake texts and propositions from imaginary women. Destroy your relationships, destroy your reputation. Only $9.99 per month, or $49.99 for premium fakery?

Jupiter said...

Fine, as long as they bring the nuclear reactors back online.

Aggie said...

How could this be considered an 'ending'. Is Reddit somehow going to become unavailable, less available, or filtered for its users? Not seeing how adding an option like this would be the same as 'ending'.

Hey Skipper said...

Well played.

mccullough said...

Otis Redding link?

Jaq said...

What they really should do with AI is generate little short films of the stories people tell.

Josephbleau said...

“ It’s the same with any AI tool seeking to synthesize, summarize, and boil portions of the web to their essence: Eventually, the pot will burn dry."

Yes, similar to control theory, once a process is placed on automatic control, the measured data can no longer be used to diagnose the process.

Josephbleau said...

This is because the measured data is independent of process variation.

boatbuilder said...

It seems like the real fit for conversational AI is in psychotherapy.

"And how does that make you feel?" "Tell me more." "I understand your concerns."

Always listening. Never offensive. No pressure. Supportive.

Free instead of whatever the hell therapists are charging these days.

Joe Bar said...

As Marc Andreesen said, all AI is human based, anyway. So, who cares.

Balfegor said...

Reddit commenters on popular story-oriented subreddits, like Am I the Asshole are already paranoid that every story they see is AI generated and seem to believe half the commenters are bots, so I don't think this would do much to drive down actual human engagement. It's what they already believe is happening, and it hasn't deterred them yet. Or they're all bots already anyhow.

Marcus Bressler said...

reddit is SO full of "facts" and "answers" that have no basis in reality -- it's like asking your great-Aunt Martha about car engines .... look at six or seven Reddit answers in a row and they are all different. Not to mention their TDS

Fred Drinkwater said...

A huge portion of reddit traffic on the popular subs, original posts, is from bots. Less annoying is the bot traffic in the responses.

I hang out in places like r/Machinists and r/Aviation, which don't have this problem. Yet.

Tonight, r/Aviation is flooded with traffic about the horrific midair at Reagan National.

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