Kelsie Johnston shared a great perspective recently, but the power dynamic between Reddit, Inc. and ChatGPT might actually be backwards. Here’s the thing: ChatGPT needs Reddit more than Reddit needs ChatGPT.
Table of Contents
The Numbers
In the US, Reddit usage is nearly 50% larger than ChatGPT with a far higher average session length. And Reddit is growing while ChatGPT’s historic growth era seemed to end about 6 months ago.
Authentic Voices
Reddit is the highest volume corpus of natural, authentic, human voice written content in history. I don’t even think a future firehose of TikTok or Meta data could replace that applicability that comes from the unique back and forth of content and comments on Reddit. Those other platforms’ give-and-take of feedback is far shallower.
Search Behavior
Looking at Google Trends, which is an imperfect barometer, shows that people still Google “reddit” far more than they Google “chatgpt” because real humans know that is where the content is.
Personal Experience
In short, ChatGPT would be diminished significantly without Reddit more than the other way around.
I recently switched from paying for ChatGPT and moved to Claude. But the thing I miss most about ChatGPT is its real sense of humor and pseudo-humanity, which undoubtedly comes from its Reddit access. Claude seriously lacks this.
Who Holds Power?
The party with the power here is Reddit. They are the firmer base to build and understand your business and voice. But of course that might not last forever either.
Kelsey is correct though. Deal terms change and we could find ourselves in a future where ChatGPT and Reddit part ways. But then I’m sure Claude or Google would happily pick it up.
Final Thoughts
Reddit holds the leverage in this relationship because it owns the most valuable asset: authentic human conversation at massive scale. ChatGPT’s personality and usefulness depend heavily on that training data. And if the partnership ends, other AI players would be quick to step in.
The real question isn’t whether AI needs social platforms. It’s which platform owns the most genuine human voice. Right now, that’s Reddit.
What do you think about the future of AI and social media partnerships?