Reddit is going to use AI to summarize its insanely long threads, in a move that could transform the service
Reddit threads can be incredibly long, and sometimes it’s hard to figure out what they’re really about, regardless of the title. Even searching for keywords can be a matter of luck. The platform wants to help solve that problem, and plans to roll out a new AI-powered feature later this year that will generate summaries at the top of search results.
The idea is simple: AI powered by large language models is good at condensing and summarizing large chunks of text, like the stuff that fills Reddit threads. By making these summaries part of Reddit’s search system, users can more quickly find the content they’re looking for. With millions of posts and comments added to Reddit every day, parsing them for the content you’re actually interested in would be a lot easier with an AI assistant that could boil everything down into concise explanations.
“Reddit’s content is uniquely valuable and increasingly important in the context of web search. Users now perform over 1 billion searches per month on Reddit, and our product work improves the search experience and conversion rate on the platform,” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman explained during the phone call“Later this year, we’ll begin testing new search results pages powered by AI to summarize and recommend content, so users can dive deeper into product showcases, games, and discover new communities on Reddit.”
Reddit AI
Huffman said the AI-powered summaries will use both first- and third-party models to produce accurate and relevant summaries. The third-party element is notable because Reddit recently closed access to its data to companies that haven’t signed specific deals with the company to do so. Right now, that basically just includes Google and OpenAI. Reddit also has a separate deal with OpenAI that allows Reddit to use OpenAI’s LLMs for AI-powered features.
This isn’t Reddit’s only experiment with AI on the site. The call also discussed the success of Reddit’s AI language translation feature. The translator lets users interact with content in languages they might not speak, including German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Huffman credited the translator in part for making France one of Reddit’s fastest-growing user bases.
Offering AI-generated summaries arguably represents an even bigger opening for new Reddit users than the translation service. A summary at the top of a page helps people understand what’s being discussed much faster than diving into the entire thread, especially if it’s large enough to deter regular users from even starting it. Easier navigation and absorption could make Reddit a much friendlier place for those who might not have a lot of time on their hands. Of course, that’s only true if the AI summaries are good enough to avoid some of the issues that led Google to scale back its AI summaries in search results.