Reddit said Friday that the Federal Trade Commission has opened an inquiry into the social media platform’s sale, licensing or sharing of its users’ posts and other content to outside organizations for use in training artificial intelligence models.
The company disclosed the inquiry Friday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that cited a letter from the FTC dated Thursday.
“Given the novel nature of these technologies and commercial arrangements, we are not surprised that the FTC has expressed interest in this area,” Reddit wrote in the filing. “We do not believe that we have engaged in any unfair or deceptive trade practice.”
Like many other social media platforms, Reddit has expressed interest in business deals where AI companies pay to access databases of human-written text that AI models can use to refine their ability to produce written work and images on request.
US consumer sentiment ticks down slightly, but most expect inflation to ease further
Consumers became slightly less optimistic about the economy this month, though they continue to expect inflation to cool further, a potential sign that price increases will keep slowing.
The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index slipped to 76.5 in March, barely below February’s figure of 76.9. Americans’ outlook has essentially remained fixed since January, when it leapt higher.
Sentiment is about halfway between its all-time low, reached in June 2022 when inflation peaked, and its pre-pandemic averages. Americans’ outlook on the economy will likely have a significant effect on the presidential race, which will likely focus heavily on perceptions of President Joe Biden’s economic record.
