CEO Steve Huffman says tech giants should not be able to trawl Reddit’s huge store of data for free. But that information came from users, not the company

  • _number8_@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    i saw a spez quote, one of the sickest things i’ve ever read, about how people are sharing things on reddit, especially in mental health / recovery spaces, “that they wouldn’t even share with a therapist”, and isn’t it a fucking travesty that that hasn’t been properly harvested and monetized

    this guy should be put in a fucking padded room


    edit: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/technology/reddit-ai-openai-google.html

    “There’s a lot of stuff on the site that you’d only ever say in therapy, or AA, or never at all … But we don’t need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free.”

    • 567PrimeMover@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      The more shit I hear come out of his mouth the more I’m disgusted that I ever used reddit. Aaron Swartz must be spinning in his grave

      • Batcow@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Unfortunately, I feel like Swartz would be spinning for a LOT of things that Web 2.0 turned out to be and propagate. We don’t even blink at the idea of personal data being shared across unknown anonymous networks. It’s a matter of “whatev’s, they’re welcome to find out what porn I like”.

        Like remember when that Will Smith movie “Enemy of the State” came out and although it’s way over the top, it was totally on point in principle on how vulnerable we are in networks overseen by anonymous government entities and private companies.

        Now we fucking applaud hundred-millionaires becoming billionaires for capitalizing on the internet stew we all threw our goods in for fun research, and internet community

    • Gresham's Law@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      There are a lot of users/bots sponsored by corrupt institutions & industries on that platform, be sceptical.

  • llama@midwest.social
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    1 year ago

    Oh you built this community through your own time moderating, posting, upvoting and commenting? Cool we’re gonna sell it to Vanguard for a few billy and pocket the profits! And, here’s a list of approved content you’re allowed to post now. Hard pass bro nobody cares about your IPO when we built your company.

    • panopticchaos@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Look, u/spez has been very clear about this, he’s not threatening anyone, he is just ensuring we only talk about Rampart. You know for the users.

    • Harry@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      That is pretty much the gist of it. Reddit profited off the free labor of its users. Now they are disrespecting them. That is not going to end well.

    • ArugulaZ@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Every time Paint Hufferman opens his mouth I want to down an IPA. I think I’m going to die of alcohol poisoning.

  • Steeve@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    So this is interesting, think of Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple. Their top goal is to use your user data to target you with ads and ultimately have you purchase a product or service. The better the return on ad spend the more advertisers spend on ads. It’s actually a misconception that these companies directly sell user data, in fact it’s in their best interest that they be the only one with your user data to give them an edge over their competitors in the ad business.

    Reddit, on the other hand, has openly admitted to wanting to sell user created content through their API. I get the sentiment I guess, AI is being trained off their site, so they should get paid right? But AI isn’t being trained off Reddit’s thought, creativity, or intelligence, that belongs to the users, all Reddit owns is the servers and the UI. Reddit is about to actually do what we’ve been scared of other tech companies doing this entire time.

    This honestly makes me more uncomfortable than targeted ads, because there’s no circular dependency or even arguable benefit to the users here, it’s one corporation taking your thought and selling it directly to another so they can both profit and build a tool that’ll mostly be used by other corporations to automate and profit. It’s all just another scam to get money out of our pockets.

  • ArugulaZ@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    DING DING DING! Finally, someone chimes in with the correct answer. Content on Reddit is created by the users. Users provide it for free, and Paint Hufferman exploits it for profit. Users get nothing in return, not even control over their own subreddits.

  • WhipTheLlama@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Huffman claims it’s about things like LLM training that uses the API, as if it isn’t possible to validate apps that want to use the API and only issue keys for approved apps. This could save third party apps while preventing bad actors from gaining access to the data without scraping the site.

    No, if bad actors were the problem then the solution would be much different.

    • Metacortechs@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      The only problem Huffman has is that Huffman’s bank account doesn’t have enough zeros and he aims to change that no matter what.

  • GreenPlasticSushiGrass@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    So this is a real shitstorm – and one that, for a change, does not involve Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg.

    LOL! I know I should just let this go, but I do love watching a good dumpster fire!

      • Dick Justice@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Ooh, there should be a Request A Bot community. Maybe there’s peeps out there that just looove creating bots and know how to do it.

        • aeternum@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          I’m after a bot to post AFL games to the @afl magazine when new AFL games start. I tried making it myself, but i absolutely suck at programming. If anyone is interested please let me know :)

          FWIW, i just made @BotRequests if anyone is interested in joining.

  • vaguerant@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I know it’s an opinion piece, but it’s always kind of funny to see a word like “shitstorm” pop up in a credible news source.

  • RomanRoy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It was always so funny redditors saying things villanizing Meta, Apple or Amazon while thinking Reddit was so special

  • jelos98@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Disagree. Those users gave it freely to Reddit under the user agreement with them, which in turn allows them to use it basically however they please, including sub licensing. No one gave other companies permission to do so.

    TLDR: read the things you agree to, next time

    • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, you’re probably right about the legal details of it. But what’s written in legal texts doesn’t necessarily align with what is morally acceptable. I interpret the article as an opinion piece about who has the moral high ground, and it certainly isn’t Huffman. That guy has no moral compass.