A Reddit publish 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 needs to put on white. A situation the place a guardian asks somebody on an airplane to change seats to allow them to sit subsequent to their younger youngster is prone to invoke the identical rush of anger. However these posts might set off a Reddit moderator’s annoyance for a unique cause—they’re widespread themes inside a rising style of AI-generated, pretend posts.
These are examples that spring to thoughts for Cassie, one among 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 fighting an inflow of AI content material. A few of it’s completely AI-generated, whereas different customers have taken to modifying their posts and feedback with AI applications like Grammarly.
“It’s in all probability extra prevalent than anyone needs to actually admit, as a result of it’s simply really easy to shove your publish 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 might have been created or reworked with AI indirectly.
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 flawed (“YTA” means “You’re the asshole,” whereas “ESH” means “Everybody sucks right here”), who is true, and what the perfect plan of action to take is shifting 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 problem taking place in all types of subreddits.
“In case you have a common marriage 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 nearly 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 internet enterprise earlier than that. She views AI as a possible existential risk to the platform.
“Reddit itself is both going to need to 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.”
