Just as we all knew all along, #Reddit’s move to charge exorbitant fees for API access was so they can cut lucrative deals to sell user-created material to train #AI models.
I was a redditor of about 15 years when I decided to delete everything I wrote and close my account because I foresaw this hostile repurposing of what is essentially a massive store of freely-accessible, context-rich community-generated content, made by people who didn’t necessarily want their content to be used for training without compensation.
AI training is largely built on top of exploitation of labor for private gain. It’s legal in many cases, but it’s often unethical and immoral.
“Reddit Signs AI Content Licensing Deal Ahead of IPO”
No-paywall version here: https://archive.ph/caW1Y