Sources: Reddit signed a deal early in 2024, worth ~$60M on an annualized basis, allowing a large unnamed AI company to train its models on Reddit's content
including here—is now just an unpaid day laborer on someone else's LLM training farm. The only difference is that some companies make it more obvious than others. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Mastodon: @mcc@mastodon.social : So is there like... a tool I can use to delete all my Reddit posts, or what https://www.engadget.com/... Or does the API fuckery mean bulk deletion is prevented also Dr. Fortyseven / @fortyseven@defcon.social : Remember how part of killing the #Reddit API was also to curb ‘theft’ of their data by AI harvesters? — Hahahahahahaa. — https://www.theverge.com/... Ian Betteridge / @ianbetteridge@writing.exchange : From the company that called its volunteer moderators “landed gentry” — https://www.bloomberg.com/... X: Shibetoshi Nakamoto / @billym2k : @Techmeme most insufferable ai ever made Sean Tuffy / @smtuffy : Artificial Incel, nice @rayredacted : The reason that websites like Twitter and Reddit are disabling or monetizing their API's is because unique data sets is the 21st century version of uranium. Everyone wants their own stockpile, except they will be utilizing it immediately. Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : I mentioned yesterday that Google's best strategy for maintaining AI dominance will be using its deep pockets to lock down sources of training data. We've now learned Reddit has signed a $60M/year deal to provide its data to an unnamed AI company. Key question is if exclusive? [image] @robdziobon : An AI so inspired by Reddit will be the first AI to shove a crayon 🖍️ up its nose and claim stupid is not a bug, but a feature. Luke Bouma / @lukebk : So Reddit is probably the last place I want AI to be trained on... McCoy / @chrisamccoy : Training Data Wars finally coming out of the shadows Nicole Miller / @josourcing : Stop using @Reddit and delete your most personal and important posts before saving them. @privacymatters : 👀 not ok. Hello @EU_EDPB which DPA is gonna look at this. Ooh .. sorry I forgot you don't accept queries from the unworthy such as data subjects (I can post the email if you like ) @natarajsindam : This is either Open AI or Reid Hoffman's new AI company. @jason : 🤔 $60m, a bargain for someone 🧐 Corey Quinn / @quinnypig : Ah, the same Reddit whose CEO referred to the site's volunteer moderators as “landed gentry” when they protested? Imagine that. Jennifer Cobbe / @jennifercobbe : Given the *vast* quantity of personal data on reddit, maybe literally any EU dp regulator might want to take a look at this Austin Petersmith / @awwstn : [image] Forums: Hacker News : Reddit signs $60M content licensing deal with AI company r/macapps : Reddit has a new AI training deal to sell user content. Would r/macapps ever gonna consider migrating to Lemmy after this? r/singularity : Reddit has reportedly signed over its content to train AI models r/DefendingAIArt : “Reddit has a new AI training deal to sell user content” - I guess antis can't use reddit now r/synthesizers : Reddit signs content licensing deal with AI company - If you see me spewing total complete and utter nosense in the future, this is the reason. r/aiwars : Reddit Signs AI Content Licensing Deal Ahead of IPO r/privacy : Reddit Signs Content Licensing Deal With AI Company r/conspiracy : Reddit signs content licensing deal with AI company ahead of IPO. Well it was nice knowing you all. r/anime_titties : Reddit signs content licensing deal with AI company ahead of IPO, Bloomberg reports r/de : Reddit signs content licensing deal with AI company ahead of IPO, Bloomberg reports r/Meovely : Reddit is awful ????? Minnix To / Beehaw : Reddit signs $60M contract allowing AI company to train its models on the social media platform's content Slashdot : Reddit Has Reportedly Signed Over Its Content to Train AI Models See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
This report is an early marker of Reddit turning its corpus into a paid AI asset rather than leaving it broadly available through platform access. Days later, related coverage described Google's reported $60M-a-year Reddit Data API agreement, connecting model training rights with search distribution.
The arrangement also foreshadows Reddit's later partnership with OpenAI, which paired data access with AI features for the platform. That progression matters because it makes licensing a product and partnership channel, not simply a restriction on scraping.
First-order effects
- Reddit gains an estimated $60M in annualized licensing revenue from an unnamed large AI company and formalizes access to user-generated content for model training.
- The buyer obtains authorized access to Reddit material for training, while Reddit can distinguish paid model access from unlicensed collection.
Second-order effects
- Other AI developers seeking comparable conversational data face pressure to negotiate licenses or rely on less certain collection methods; Reddit's API becomes a commercial control point rather than only a developer interface.
- The deal gives Reddit a basis to police unauthorized use more aggressively—a posture reflected later in its lawsuit alleging Anthropic continued accessing Reddit after saying it had stopped.
Third-order effects
- If repeated across platforms, AI training data is likely to shift from an implicitly open web input toward a contracted supply market, concentrating advantages with platforms that control distinctive, current communities.
- The model-data boundary may increasingly be set by API terms, licensing contracts, and litigation rather than technical accessibility alone, though the durability of that boundary depends on enforceability and buyer demand.
The trend: This is one data point in the commercialization of online community content as controlled training and inference input for AI systems.