[
Reddit additional stated Its IPO subsequent week says it might generate $203 million in income over the subsequent few years from licensing person posts to Google and others for AI tasks. The community-driven platform was compelled to reveal on Friday that US regulators have already got questions on that new line of enterprise.
In a regulatory submitting, Reddit stated it acquired a letter from the US Federal Commerce Fee on Thursday relating to “our promoting, licensing, or sharing of user-generated content material with third events to coach AI fashions.” I used to be requested.
The FTC, the U.S. authorities's main antitrust regulator, has the facility to sanction corporations discovered to have interaction in unfair or misleading commerce practices. The concept of licensing user-generated content material for AI tasks has raised questions from lawmakers and rights teams about privateness dangers, equity, and copyright.
Reddit will not be alone in attempting to become profitable from licensing information, together with user-generated information, for AI. Programming Q&A web site StackOverflow has signed a take care of Google, the Related Press has signed a take care of OpenAI, and Tumblr proprietor Automattic has stated it’s working “with choose AI corporations.” Has been, however will permit customers to choose out of passing on their information. Neither licensor instantly responded to requests for remark. Reddit isn't the one firm to obtain an FTC letter about information licensing, Axios reported Friday, citing an unnamed former company official.
It’s unclear whether or not the letter to Reddit is straight associated to the evaluation by one other firm.
Reddit stated in Friday's disclosure that it doesn’t imagine it engaged in any inappropriate or misleading actions, however warned that coping with any authorities investigation may very well be expensive and time-consuming. “The letter indicated that FTC workers have been all for assembly with us to be taught extra about our plans and that the FTC supposed to request data and paperwork from us as its inquiry continues,” the submitting stated. Reddit stated the FTC letter described the investigation as “a private investigation.”
Reddit, whose 17 billion posts and feedback are thought of beneficial by AI specialists for coaching chatbots within the artwork of dialog, introduced a deal final month to license content material to Google. Reddit and Google didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. The FTC declined to remark. (Advance Journal Publishers, father or mother of WIRED's writer Condé Nast, owns a stake in Reddit.)
AI chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini are seen as aggressive threats to Reddit, publishers, and different ad-supported, content-driven companies. Final yr the potential of licensing information to AI builders emerged as a possible good thing about generative AI for some corporations.
However using information collected on-line to coach AI fashions has raised many questions in boardrooms, courtrooms and Congress. For Reddit and others whose information is generated by customers, these questions embrace who truly owns the content material and whether or not it’s acceptable to license it with out granting a waiver to the creator. Safety researchers have discovered that AI fashions can leak private information included within the content material used to create them. And a few critics have advised the offers might make highly effective corporations much more influential.