Two things very important to me as a content writer is all the new AI technology and the caring intelligent community of Reddit. So seeing how AI will affect the website/app, is something worth staying up to date about. However if you were to check the front pages of Reddit, you will see the Moderators (who basically control the content) are fighting against and not agreeing with Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman’s ideas.
Reddit plans on changing from an open API to a paid for API, starting July 1st, 2023. Moderators and Redditors argue this will not only stop AI companies from using their data, but hurting many small companies and independent developers and communities as well.
Reddit has been an open API for over eight years. And what we really are asking is who owns this data? Who deserves the say and rights? After all, social media content is made by the people, the community, and large corporations and billionaire CEOs have been profiting from the work of others.
This issue is close to heart, as I see Reddit as a better social media platform than Facebook, Twitter, and some others. The conversations are usual more intelligent and the social/political fighting is less annoying. AI could change and take advantage of Reddit and hurt their business, if the CEO Steve Huffman doesn’t do it himself by how he handles this sitaution.