Reddit is testing a new AI-powered search tool designed to make it the primary destination you’ll need when searching for information. And not only could this new tool, called Reddit Answers, be transformative for the site, it could have adverse effects on Google Search and the sites whose articles are listed on it.
Reddit Answers the Need to Bring Search In-House
The way that we all source information online is changing. Partly thanks to the sheer volume of information (and misinformation) shared on social media, and partly thanks to the ability of AI to gather that information and spit it out in an easy-to-read format.
Reddit Answers is Reddit’s answer to that ongoing evolution. As announced in a post on Upvoted, Reddit Answers is “a new, AI-powered conversational interface” which Reddit users can use to find information quickly and easily.
In the same way that you would with existing AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, you simply type your question in and wait for a response. However, unlike other AI chatbots, Reddit Answers will provide an answer based purely on Reddit posts.
First, Reddit’s AI will provide a summary of the information it has gathered from across Reddit. If that answers your question, then you can stop there. However, scroll down, and you’ll see a list of the Reddit threads sourced to generate the summary. Click on any, and you can read the full thread instead.
Initially, Reddit Answers is only being made available to a limited number of users in the US (on the web and iOS app). However, this is clearly the start of a huge rollout that should, all being well, end up with Reddit Answers being available to everyone, regardless of language or location.
Reddit Answers Could Be Transformative for the Site
Reddit Answers could be transformative for Reddit, turning it from a (albeit beloved) social media site to somewhere mainstream internet users go for information.
This also had to happen eventually, as Reddit has been cracking down on search engines and LLMs from crawling the site for new content. Google is the only major search engine able to surface new Reddit content, and Reddit Answers could remove the need for people to go through Google as well.
Reddit has always been a solid source of information, but it has never been the most user-friendly site for those not used to Reddit’s quirky UI (and other issues). Reddit Answers could move Reddit very much into the mainstream (with some help from artificial intelligence).