Apparently, if Microsoft wants to include Reddit posts in Bing search results — and its AI training — it’ll have to pay.
According to a new interview with Reddit CEO Steve Huffman in The Verge, Reddit expects to pay Microsoft a fee, similar to what Google does, if it wants to recrawl its website.
“Without these consents, we have no say or knowledge over how our data is displayed or what it is used for, which puts us in the position to block people who don’t agree with how we would or wouldn’t like our data to be used,” Huffman explained, noting that companies including Google and Microsoft use Reddit data to train AI models.
Microsoft outage affects Bing, Copilot, DuckDuckGo, ChatGPT
Reddit wants search engines to pay for AI training
Last week, Technology Outlet 404 Media Reddit blocking It prevents search engines like Microsoft Bing and DuckDuckGo from crawling the platform and indexing pages, which means that recent Reddit posts will no longer appear in Bing or DuckDuckGo search results.
One search engine that still serves Reddit posts in its search results is Google, thanks to a $60 million investment. transaction Google and Reddit have reached an agreement that will allow the search giant to use Reddit data to train AI models.
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Along with Google, Reddit also struck a deal with OpenAI to include Reddit posts in new search results. Search GPT Search for your product.
Huffman specifically cited Microsoft and AI companies Anthropik and Perplexity as examples of companies he is currently blocking for not negotiating how Reddit’s data can be used.
The Reddit CEO also said that blocking the companies was a “real pain,” but argued that it was necessary, especially in light of comments made by Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleiman that data published on the open web is the equivalent of “freeware” and suitable for training AI models.
Reddit has understandable concerns about AI companies using its data to train models without paying the platforms that scrape and crawl it, but the side effect of Reddit content disappearing from search engines is also unfortunate and doesn’t bode well for the future of the internet.
But this seems to be a result of search engine companies also becoming AI companies.
Mashable has reached out to Reddit for clarification and comment, and will update if we hear back.
