As more and more artificial intelligence companies begin to use Reddit data to develop their own chatbots, the popular online forum site has begun testing a new artificial intelligence conversation feature of its own. The feature, called "RedditAnswers," will allow visitors to ask questions and receive a curated summary of relevant replies and topics across the platform, the company announced on Monday.
The feature allows Reddit to better compete with artificial intelligence providers like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Perplexity. It could also help Reddit challenge Google more directly, as so many users added the "reddit" keyword to their search queries that Google eventually integrated the feature into its search engine.
RedditAnswers has launched a conversational experience on its platform designed to help people find exactly what they are looking for directly on Reddit without having to browse different individual topics and communities.
When you ask a question via RedditAnswers, you'll receive concise, conversational answers that pull information from communities and posts related to your question. Users can read relevant snippets and online responses from real users on the platform, open full conversations, and deepen their search with their own questions or suggested follow-up questions;
For example, if you ask, "What are some tips for better sleep," the feature will give you a concise summary of the information provided by other Reddit users, similar to the responses provided by AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. If you scroll down, the tool references all the different posts it draws information from so you can jump into and explore those conversations yourself.
Reddit said in a blog post that the new feature gives users a new way to get "the information, recommendations, discussions, and trending topics they're looking for" from "real conversations across all Reddit communities."
Since companies like Google and OpenAI have partnered with the Reddit platform to surface information from Reddit users' posts in their artificial intelligence features, it makes sense that Reddit would have an in-house conversational tool to help users find answers quickly.
"People know that Reddit is home to answers, advice, and opinions about anything they're looking for, and AI-powered search is part of our long-term vision to improve the Reddit search experience — making searches faster, smarter, and more relevant," the company said in a blog post.
RedditAnswers is rolling out to a limited number of users in the United States and is currently only available in English. The company plans to roll out the feature to more countries in the future and add support for other languages.
In an email, Reddit acknowledged that the feature is powered by technology built into Reddit, noting that the platform has its own artificial intelligence models while also integrating models from OpenAI and Google Cloud.
AI conversation tools aren't the only way Reddit is integrating artificial intelligence into its platform. Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman announced the launch of an AI-powered search results page earlier this year. It also uses AI to power translations and provide AI-powered insights to brands.