this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2023
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Could the reddit API changes have to do with ChatGPT rather than third party apps? (old.reddit.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by gotofritz@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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One of Spez's answers in the infamous Reddit AMA struck me

Two things happened at the same time: the LLM explosion put all Reddit data use at the forefront, and our continuing efforts to reign in costs...

I am beginning to think all they wanted to do was getting their share of the AI pie, since we know Reddit's data is one of the major datasets for training conversetional models. But they are such a bunch of bumbling fools, as well as being chronically understaffed, the whole thing exploded in their face. At this stage their only chance if survival may well be to be bought out by OpenAI...

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[–] IggyTheSmidge@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago

I think that was definitely the impetus - I first read about the changes in this article back in April: https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/18/reddit_charging_ai_api/

The closing statement is interesting:

The spokesperson we talked to also wanted to make clear the Data API was still freely accessible for appropriate use cases through the Reddit developer platform; hopefully app developers and other small-scale operators won't have any surprises ahead this summer.

I suspect they ran the numbers and started seeing dollar signs - they don't care about the third-party apps (which don't make them any money directly), they're just trying to cash in on Microsoft etc.

I have a sneaking suspicion they're going to end up back-pedalling, but it will be too little, too late.