Interesting take, but I suspect the reality is more nuanced. The author points out a counterargument to his own reasoning: The API debacle is possibly the most risky and divisive move I've seen...
Interesting take, but I suspect the reality is more nuanced. The author points out a counterargument to his own reasoning:
Of course, the needle that OpenAI must thread is closing off Reddit without killing it. Reddit’s data is valuable going forward, and losing the community would destroy the moat.
The API debacle is possibly the most risky and divisive move I've seen them make. It was an abrupt move, yet they made it after a long period of inaction, months after the value of their corpus became well known. In the ML world, Reddit has been a good source of training data for years. I don't want to exaggerate my point, but I honestly believe that anyone with eyes to see in the ML space could predict by the end of 2022 that LLMs would lead a wave of economic growth. It was just a question of how big. So, why only now did Reddit make this move? And why so quickly, in such a way that it would lead to so much furor?
I still feel like the author (and I) are missing a few of the puzzle pieces. Speculating, but if it were plain incompetence, why wouldn't they have just walked the changes back? If it were to monetize the corpus, why not take action earlier? If it were purely for the IPO, then why haven't we seen more steps toward profit-seeking before now?
It's hard to caution "restraint, restraint" when emotions are so high, but I don't know if any of us knows what forces are motivating these changes behind the scenes.
I can't help but think "garbage in, garbage out" while reading this. Reddit is not some font of knowledge. It's a really inefficient aggregator of knowledge. You have to wade through a sea of...
I can't help but think "garbage in, garbage out" while reading this. Reddit is not some font of knowledge. It's a really inefficient aggregator of knowledge. You have to wade through a sea of trash to get to anything remotely useful. I don't append "reddit" to my google searches, much like I avoid 90% of stackoverflow or quora. They have a LOT of garbage mixed in with their useful responses. And you have to know what you're looking for and verify everything to make sure you're not just being tricked by upvotes. I really don't get why people act like it's some Library of Alexandria.
Also, it's not a moat if others have access to it. While OpenAI remains a separate entity from reddit they will have to pay reddit for their data the same way any other company would. Of course, they could come to some agreement, but the point being that reddit should be monetizing their data maximally for it's own business purposes regardless of the ties in investors.
To answer @isopod's question, I think reddit is simply going for the laziest approach on generating profit. Reddit has shown lots of profit-seeking behavior for the better part of the last decade. The introduction of ads, new reddit to deliver more ads and implement endless scrolling, micro-transactions via gold, etc.
I think even if it's not a primary reason, the author is onto something with this, it makes way too much sense given the current landscape of the internet and where growth is.
I think even if it's not a primary reason, the author is onto something with this, it makes way too much sense given the current landscape of the internet and where growth is.
Interesting take, but I suspect the reality is more nuanced. The author points out a counterargument to his own reasoning:
The API debacle is possibly the most risky and divisive move I've seen them make. It was an abrupt move, yet they made it after a long period of inaction, months after the value of their corpus became well known. In the ML world, Reddit has been a good source of training data for years. I don't want to exaggerate my point, but I honestly believe that anyone with eyes to see in the ML space could predict by the end of 2022 that LLMs would lead a wave of economic growth. It was just a question of how big. So, why only now did Reddit make this move? And why so quickly, in such a way that it would lead to so much furor?
I still feel like the author (and I) are missing a few of the puzzle pieces. Speculating, but if it were plain incompetence, why wouldn't they have just walked the changes back? If it were to monetize the corpus, why not take action earlier? If it were purely for the IPO, then why haven't we seen more steps toward profit-seeking before now?
It's hard to caution "restraint, restraint" when emotions are so high, but I don't know if any of us knows what forces are motivating these changes behind the scenes.
I can't help but think "garbage in, garbage out" while reading this. Reddit is not some font of knowledge. It's a really inefficient aggregator of knowledge. You have to wade through a sea of trash to get to anything remotely useful. I don't append "reddit" to my google searches, much like I avoid 90% of stackoverflow or quora. They have a LOT of garbage mixed in with their useful responses. And you have to know what you're looking for and verify everything to make sure you're not just being tricked by upvotes. I really don't get why people act like it's some Library of Alexandria.
Also, it's not a moat if others have access to it. While OpenAI remains a separate entity from reddit they will have to pay reddit for their data the same way any other company would. Of course, they could come to some agreement, but the point being that reddit should be monetizing their data maximally for it's own business purposes regardless of the ties in investors.
To answer @isopod's question, I think reddit is simply going for the laziest approach on generating profit. Reddit has shown lots of profit-seeking behavior for the better part of the last decade. The introduction of ads, new reddit to deliver more ads and implement endless scrolling, micro-transactions via gold, etc.
I think even if it's not a primary reason, the author is onto something with this, it makes way too much sense given the current landscape of the internet and where growth is.