OpenAI announced a partnership with Reddit Inc. to bring content from the social network into chatbot ChatGPT and other products, and allow Reddit to add new artificial intelligence capabilities to its online community.
After the news was announced, Reddit’s stock price rose 11% in late trading.
The agreement “will enable OpenAI’s artificial intelligence tools to better understand and surface Reddit content, especially recent topics,” the companies said in a joint statement on Thursday. Reddit will also provide its users with new artificial intelligence-based tools based on OpenAI models, and OpenAI will become a Reddit advertising partner. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Reddit last week released new policies governing its use of data as part of an effort to increase revenue through licensing deals with artificial intelligence developers and other companies. The company sold shares in its March initial public offering and in January signed a $60 million deal with Alphabet Inc.’s Google to help train large language models, a technology fundamental to generating artificial intelligence. The San Francisco-based social network has signed licensing deals worth a total of $203 million, with terms ranging from two to three years.
OpenAI is increasingly forming partnerships with media companies to help train its artificial intelligence systems and display more real-time content in its chatbots. The ChatGPT maker also signed deals with Dotdash Meredith earlier this month and the Financial Times in April.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has a long history with Reddit—he was one of the company’s largest shareholders when it IPOed earlier this year and briefly served as Reddit’s interim CEO in 2014. The collaboration is led by OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap and approved by its independent directors.
Reddit’s shares fell 5.5% to $56.38 in New York trading, but surged to $64.75 after the partnership was announced. The stock has gained 66% since its IPO.
