The Federal Trade Charge is taking a watch into Reddit’s AI licensing offers, the firm disclosed in forms filed with the Securities and Substitute Charge. The firm, which is within the course of its Initial Public Offering, acknowledged that the regulator notified Reddit officers that it “supposed to query knowledge and paperwork” in regards to the firm’s AI offers.
It’s not clear why the FTC is probing Reddit’s quite unusual licensing industry, however it no doubt seems within the early stages of its inquiry. “On March 14, 2024, we bought a letter from the FTC advising us that the FTC’s crew is conducting a non-public inquiry fascinated by our sale, licensing, or sharing of particular person-generated state material with third parties to put together AI fashions,” Reddit wrote in a filing. “Given the radical nature of these applied sciences and industrial preparations, we’re not surprised that the FTC has expressed pastime on this space. We raise out not ponder that we’ve engaged in any unfair or counterfeit trade say.”
Reddit’s offers to license its catalog of particular person-generated state material are a key fragment of the firm’s technique to develop its revenue because it gets ready to bound public. On the day the firm filed for IPO, the firm announced it had reached a take care of Google, that can also utilize Reddit information to put together its AI fashions. That association used to be reportedly worth spherical $60 million. The firm acknowledged it used to be within the early stages of “exploring” these kinds of offers.
In accordance to Axios, different corporations contain bought identical letters from the FTC. The regulator has previously proven an pastime within the present wave of generative AI upstarts and their relationships with gigantic tech corporations, The FTC is right now investigating Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon over their investments into outstanding AI startups.
