According to reports, the arrangement is worth $60 million annually.
Reddit and Google have announced that they have reached an agreement that would enable Google to train its artificial intelligence models on Reddit’s extensive collection of user-generated material. This deal was reached between the two businesses. In accordance with the agreement, Google will be granted access to Reddit’s Data API, which will enable the business to “better understand” the content that is found on the website.
In addition, the transaction gives Google access to a key stream of information that it may use to train its artificial intelligence models. “Google will now have efficient and structured access to fresher information, as well as enhanced signals that will help us better understand Reddit content and display, train on, and otherwise use it in the most accurate and relevant ways,” the company said in a statement. “This will allow us to better understand Reddit content and display, train on, and otherwise otherwise use it.”
In the previous year, when the firm announced that it would begin charging developers to use its application programming interface (API), access to Reddit’s data became a hot-button topic. The modifications led to the closure of a large number of third-party Reddit clients and a protest that took place throughout the entire website, during which thousands of subreddits “went dark” for a short period of time. One of the reasons that Reddit justified the adjustments was by claiming that huge artificial intelligence businesses were scraping its data without paying for it. The new agreement with Google “does not change Reddit’s Data API Terms or Developer Terms,” according to a statement released by Reddit. Additionally, the company stated that “API access remains free for non-commercial usage.”
The transaction takes place at a time when Reddit is anticipated to go public in the weeks ahead. Although neither Google nor Reddit confirmed the specifics of their partnership, Bloomberg reported the previous week that Reddit had entered into a licensing agreement with a “large AI company” that was estimated to be worth “about $60 million” annually. Further confirmation of that sum came from Reuters, which was the first news organization to report on Google’s involvement.