Reddit has a new feature in the works that could make it both a ChatGPT and Google competitor.
Reddit announced on Monday that it has started to test a new AI chatbot called Reddit Answers. The bot provides conversational responses to user queries like “How can I get better sleep?” and “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” by drawing from what Redditors have written across the platform.
Reddit Answers summarizes what Redditors have said at the top of its response and links to the communities and posts across Reddit that it used to formulate the response at the bottom. Users have the option to dive deeper by clicking through the links or by asking a follow-up question.
Example of top of a Reddit Answers response. Credit: Reddit
Example of the bottom of a Reddit Answers response. Credit: Reddit
Reddit advertises Answers as a way to “Find answers from real people.”
Related: Here’s Why Reddit Turned Down an Acquisition Offer From Google in Its Early Days, According to Cofounder Alexis Ohanian
“AI-powered search is part of our longer-term vision to improve the search experience on Reddit – making it faster, smarter, and more relevant,” Reddit stated in a blog post.
The move puts Reddit in competition with search engines like Google and AI chatbots like ChatGPT. Instead of asking a question on Google and adding “Reddit” at the end of the search query to find an answer from Reddit, users can go straight to Reddit to ask the question.
The conversational format of the answer is also similar to ChatGPT, making Reddit Answers a combination of an AI chatbot and a Reddit search.
Related: Can ChatGPT Help Start a Business? I Tried the Latest Version, GPT-4o, to Find Out.
Google and OpenAI have already signed deals to use Reddit data in their AI responses. Google currently has about 90% of the search engine market, according to Stat Counter. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed last week that ChatGPT has over 300 million weekly users and handles more than one billion messages per day.
Reddit Answers is currently only available in early access to a limited group of Redditors in the U.S., with plans to roll it out to additional countries.
