(San Francisco) OpenAI will have access to the exchanges of users of the social network Reddit to train its generative artificial intelligence models, an important step for the company accused by many authors and publishers of having plundered the internet to create programs like ChatGPT.
The two companies announced the deal on Thursday, without disclosing an amount.
It plans for OpenAI to be able to use messages and conversations published on Reddit in real time to enrich its generative AI services (production of content upon simple query in everyday language).
In exchange, Reddit will add AI tools to its discussion platform for users and moderators, features that will be based on OpenAI models.
“Reddit has become one of the largest open archives of authentic, relevant and always up-to-date human conversations about anything and everything,” said Reddit boss Steve Huffman, quoted in the press release.
« Include it in ChatGPT […] will help people more easily find what they are looking for on the internet, and help new audiences find their community on Reddit. »
OpenAI will additionally become an advertising partner of Reddit. The platform already signed a similar agreement with Google in February.
The social network founded in 2005 and listed on the stock market last March has around 100,000 forums and more than 267 million weekly users.
Despite its success with the public, it has never managed to turn a profit, and its leaders seek to take advantage of the tech giants’ needs for raw materials – content created by humans – to train their generative AI models.
Last June, Reddit raised the prices charged to third-party publishers to use the data and conversations posted on its forums, in order to prevent the giants of the sector (OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, etc.) from exploiting this content for free.
The decision sparked an outcry as many small developers built apps linked to the platform based on low prices or even free access to its programming interface (API).
OpenAI and its competitors, for their part, face complaints from authors, artists and press organizations, including the New York Times, who accuse the groups of having violated their copyrights to power their models.
OpenAI specified in its press release that its co-founder and CEO, Sam Altman, is a shareholder in Reddit.