Google will be paying Reddit $60 million a year as part of a plan in which the social media platform’s content will be used to train the search giant’s artificial intelligence models, according to a new report from Reuters, which says that it learned of the deal from three different sources. The news follows a report from Bloomberg last week about how Reddit had signed an AI content licensing deal ahead of its IPO, but it wasn’t clear what that company was at the time.
Reuters reports:
- “Social media platform Reddit has struck a deal with Google to make its content available for training the search engine giant’s artificial intelligence models…”
- “The contract with Alphabet-owned Google is worth about $60 million per year, according to one of the sources.”
- “Reddit, which is preparing for a high-profile stock market launch, is seeking to generate new revenue…from the likes of TikTok and Meta…”
Reuters noted:
Last year, Reddit said it would charge companies for access to its application programming interface (API) – the means by which it distributes its content. The agreement with Google is its first reported deal with a big AI company.
Critics are saying:
- “lol AI is going to get real dumb real fast.”
- “Why don’t they just get the Data from the bot-writers directly? Would cover 98% of reddits content.”
- “that’s pocket change for Google— you’re getting hosed, Reddit”
- “If a deal like this goes through, remember any creative work you put on here can then be used legally in any future AI content created by Google. This is kinda crazy…”
- “Considering how much Reddit content is AI generated spam, this is going to get hilarious.”
Bloomberg previously reported:
The San Francisco-based firm told prospective investors in its IPO that it had signed the deal, worth about $60 million on an annualized basis, earlier this year, the people said. Reddit’s agreement with an unnamed large AI company could be a model for future contracts of a similar nature, one of the people said.