Reddit to Test AI-Powered Search Results

AI-generated summaries will soon be displayed at the head of search results for Reddit users

During the earnings call on Tuesday, Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman informed investors that the company intends to evaluate AI-powered search result pages to “summarize and recommend content.” He observed that this will enable users to “delve deeper” into content and identify new Reddit communities.

According to Huffman, the feature will be powered by a combination of first-party and third-party technology. The experiment is scheduled to commence later this year.

Those monitoring the company’s most recent initiatives likely anticipated that Reddit would consider implementing an AI-powered search feature. Reddit announced its partnership with OpenAI in May, allowing the company to utilize OpenAI’s extensive language models to develop AI-powered features for Redditors and moderators.

The agreement also grants OpenAI access to the social network’s data. Earlier this year, Reddit executed a comparable agreement with Google.

AI was a frequently discussed subject during today’s call. Huffman also emphasized the success of Reddit’s AI-powered language translation feature, asserting that France is one of its “fastest-growing countries.” The company is also expanding the translation feature to include German, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Since becoming a public company, Reddit has reported its quarterly earnings twice. Today was the second occasion. The company reported 342.3 million weekly active users in the second quarter, representing a 57% increase from the previous year. Revenue surged to $281.2 million, surpassing Wall Street’s projections of $253.8 million.