Social media platform Reddit plans to begin charging companies to use its API, which is required for those that want to use its data for LLM training.
According to The New York Times, the change comes as tech giants have turned to Reddit's massive trove of user-generated content to help develop their AI systems.
- Reddit's data consisting of human conversations and interactions is continuously updated, making it particularly valuable for training chatbots and LLMs.
- Companies that "crawl" Reddit for that data and "don't return any of that value" to users will soon have to pay for API access, Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman told The Times.
- Officially, Reddit is launching a "new premium access point for third parties," though it hasn't said how much it will charge to use the API.
- The API will still be free for developers that create bots and apps to assist Reddit users, or researchers studying the platform for academic and/or non-commercial purposes.
- Reddit is seeking ways to monetize its vast amounts of data and create new revenue streams as it gears up for a possible IPO later this year.
