Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on surviving the AI slop-pocalypse

About this episode

The episode features Reddit CEO Steve Huffman discussing the challenges of AI in social media and Reddit's unique approach to community and moderation.

Alex and Ellis break down the viral AI essay that tanked stocks and debate whether agents could end white-collar work as we know it. Then they’re joined by Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman to talk about fighting AI slop, why Reddit has resisted becoming traditional social media, and how the platform is navigating bots, moderation, and creators. They discuss prediction markets, Reddit’s anti-self-promotion culture, the challenge of onboarding new users, local communities, government censorship pressure, age verification laws in Australia, and Reddit’s AI data licensing deals with companies like Google and OpenAI. Follow ACCESS on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/accesspodcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Alex: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sources.news/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/alexeheath/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ellis: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://meaning.company/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/hamburger⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ACCESS is produced in partnership with the Vox Media Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People in this episode

Hosts: Alex, Ellis

Guest: Steve Huffman

Topics covered

• AI
• social media
• moderation
• community
• censorship
• user onboarding

Keywords

• AI slop
• Reddit
• social media
• moderation
• bots
• censorship
• community
• data licensing

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Reddit, Google, OpenAI

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