AI Slop Is Ruining Reddit for Everybody
A Reddit submit a few bride who calls for a marriage visitor put on a particular, unflattering shade is bound to impress rage, not to mention one a few bridesmaid or mom of the groom who desires to put on white. A state of affairs the place a mum or dad asks somebody on an airplane to modify seats to allow them to sit subsequent to their younger baby is prone to invoke the identical rush of anger. However these posts could set off a Reddit moderator’s annoyance for a distinct cause—they’re frequent themes inside a rising style of AI-generated, faux posts.
These are examples that spring to thoughts for Cassie, one in all dozens of moderators for r/AmItheAsshole. With over 24 million members, it is one of many greatest subreddits, and it explicitly bans AI-generated content material and different made-up tales. Since late 2022, when ChatGPT first launched to the general public, Cassie (who needed to be referred to by first title solely) and different individuals who volunteer their time to reasonable Reddit posts have been combating an inflow of AI content material. A few of it’s totally AI-generated, whereas different customers have taken to modifying their posts and feedback with AI applications like Grammarly.
“It’s most likely extra prevalent than anyone desires to essentially admit, as a result of it’s simply really easy to shove your submit into ChatGPT and say ‘Hey, make this extra thrilling,’” says Cassie, who thinks as a lot as half of all content material being posted to Reddit could have been created or reworked with AI in a roundabout way.
r/AmItheAsshole is a pillar of Reddit tradition, a format that has impressed dozens if not a whole lot of derivatives like r/AmIOverreacting, r/AmITheDevil, and r/AmItheKameena, a subreddit with over 100,000 members described as “Am I the asshole, however the Indian model.” Posts are inclined to characteristic tales about interpersonal conflicts, the place Redditors can weigh in on who’s improper (“YTA” means “You’re the asshole,” whereas “ESH” means “Everybody sucks right here”), who is correct, and what the most effective plan of action to take is transferring ahead. Customers and moderators throughout these r/AmItheAsshole variants have reported seeing extra content material they believe is AI-generated, and others say it is a sitewide subject occurring in every kind of subreddits.
“In case you have a basic wedding ceremony sub or AITA, relationships, or one thing like that, you’ll get hit arduous,” says a moderator of r/AITAH, a variant of r/AmItheAsshole that has virtually 7 million members. This moderator, a retiree who spoke on the situation of anonymity, has been lively on Reddit for 18 years—most of its existence—and in addition had many years of expertise within the net enterprise earlier than that. She views AI as a possible existential menace to the platform.
“Reddit itself is both going to must do one thing, or the snake goes to swallow its personal tail,” she says. “It’s attending to the purpose the place the AI is feeding the AI.”
