Reddit introduces AI-powered ‘Reddit Solutions’ search function

Earlier this yr Reddit on AI corporations and a few main search engines like google, saying that corporations wouldn’t be allowed to scrape its web site until they struck licensing offers with the corporate. Now, the “entrance web page of the web” is introducing its personal AI-powered search function.

Known as “Reddit Solutions,” the function offers summaries of conversations and posts from throughout the positioning in a “conversational interface.” Counting on content material from all public, SFW subreddits, the aim is for Reddit to have the ability to straight present related outcomes for queries that individuals might in any other case discover through Google searches, the place it’s develop into more and more frequent to append “Reddit” to queries.

Whereas that sounds quite a bit like a Reddit-based search engine, VP of product Serkan Piantino says that Reddit Solutions isn’t essentially attempting to give you a singular reply the way in which you would possibly count on with a Google search. As an alternative, the instruments surfaced a handful of bullet factors pulled straight from related threads on Reddit. These conversations are linked straight within the interface, as are related subreddits the place customers can dive deeper into comparable matters. “A giant theme is that it does type of information you in the direction of the content material itself, as a substitute of attempting to signify a solution by itself,” Piantino tells Engadget.

Reddit gave me early entry to the function and the present model seems a bit like Meta’s AI search options in Instagram, with just a few dozen steered queries and accompanying emoji. The responses, nevertheless, are detailed and hyperlink on to highly-upvoted feedback from varied subreddits the place Redditors have beforehand weighed in on comparable matters. That’s useful as a result of a few of the outcomes might not make sense with out the broader context from the thread (like within the reply screenshotted adobe that references a picture of Value Harry).

I additionally observed that a lot of Reddit’s built-in options centered round product questions, like “finest robotic vacuum” or “finest vitamin C serum.” Whereas that’s not essentially stunning — many individuals already flip to Reddit boards for purchasing recommendation — it additionally raises questions on whether or not the corporate may probably monetize the brand new search function. “It is one thing that we have considered at a excessive degree, however we have now no quick plans for monetization,” Piantino stated once I requested him about it.

For now, he stated, the function continues to be in beta and can be rolling out slowly. As of at the moment, Reddit Solutions is making its strategy to a “restricted quantity” of customers within the US on net and iOS, with a broader rollout anticipated someday subsequent yr.