Reddit Answers: Know about AI-powered search that works across platform

Reddit Answers is capable of retrieving information not just from posts but also from comments and discussion threads across Reddit

Microblogging platform Reddit has launched an AI-powered conversational interface called Reddit Answers. This new feature, essentially a chatbot, allows users to obtain information, recommendations, and discussions on specific topics by fetching real conversations and insights from Reddit communities.

 

Unlike AI-driven tools like ChatGPT Search, which gather information from across the internet, Reddit Answers focuses exclusively on content available on the platform. It retrieves information from posts, comments, and discussion threads, providing a comprehensive search experience.

Earlier this year, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman announced that the platform had begun using first-party and third-party AI models to enhance its search results. He also stated that Reddit would soon integrate AI-generated content summaries at the top of search results.

 

 

Reddit Answers: Features

 

Reddit Answers introduces an AI-powered conversational interface, enabling users to ask questions and receive responses. The tool offers curated summaries of relevant discussions, along with links to related posts and communities. Users can view snippets and answers directly within the interface. Additionally, the chatbot supports follow-up questions, using contextual and conversational understanding to refine responses.

 

Reddit Answers: Availability

 

Currently in the testing phase, Reddit Answers is being rolled out to a limited number of users in the United States, with support available in English. Reddit plans to expand the feature to more regions and add support for additional languages in the future.

 

Reddit content and AI partnerships

 

In May this year, Reddit had partnered with OpenAI to bring its content to popular chatbot ChatGPT. The deal underscored Reddit's attempt to diversify beyond its advertising business, and followed its partnership with Alphabet to make its content available for training Google's AI models.

 

Soon after Reddit restricted access to its data for search engines other than Google, which had stirred significant attention and debate within the tech community. This move, as stated by Reddit, was aimed to curb the misuse of public content, particularly by commercial entities engaged in scraping Reddit's data for various purposes without consent.