Reddit revealed on Friday that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating the social media platform’s transactions involving its users’ posts and other content being sold, licensed, or shared with external organizations to train artificial intelligence models.
The company announced the investigation on Friday in a submission to the Securities and Exchange Commission, referencing a letter from the FTC dated Thursday.
In the filing, Reddit stated, “Given the newness of these technologies and business arrangements, we are not surprised that the FTC has shown interest in this area. We do not believe that we have conducted any unfair or deceptive trade practice.”
Similar to many other social media platforms, Reddit has shown interest in transactions where AI firms pay to access databases of human-authored text that AI models can utilize to improve their ability to generate written work and images upon request.
US consumer sentiment decreases slightly, but most anticipate further decrease in inflation
This month, consumers have become a bit less positive about the economy, though they still anticipate a continued decline in inflation, indicating a potential trend toward ongoing slowdown in price increases.
The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index dipped to 76.5 in March, marginally below February’s 76.9. Americans’ outlook has essentially remained stable since January, when it significantly increased.
The sentiment currently stands at about midway between its lowest point in June 2022 when inflation peaked, and its averages before the pandemic. Americans’ economic outlook is expected to significantly impact the upcoming presidential race, which is likely to heavily focus on perceptions of President Joe Biden’s economic performance.
