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Reddit is celebrating its 20th anniversary by significantly expanding its AI integration efforts, aiming to improve the user experience and unlock the potential of its vast trove of user-generated content. According to CTO Chris Slowe, early AI tools, such as Reddit Answers, are already demonstrating promising results.

The platform’s strategy differs from those leveraging Reddit data, such as Google, by directly utilizing its own content to power its AI features. Reddit Answers, one of the initial user-facing AI implementations, offers AI-generated summaries in response to user queries. Crucially, Reddit Answers emphasizes transparency and attribution by providing direct links to the original Reddit posts that inform its summaries. This approach directly addresses concerns regarding content ownership and the potential for SEO spam.

“If you just want the short summary, it’s there,” stated Slowe. “If you want to see where it came from, it’s there.” This move signals a pivotal moment in Reddit’s history, as it explores ways to leverage AI to better serve its community and make its content more accessible.