this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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From the current Reddit User Agreement:
I found a historical version from 10 years ago and that version already had this:
Haven't dug up anything earlier than this, do you know of any?
Basically, you gave Reddit your approval long ago.
Yep, they changed it.
Did you use the service in the last 10 years?
Yes I did, but it is not clear if these are enforceable in court, when they give us read those multi page agreements that most people skip. More over AI like today did not exist and one can easily argue that that agreement does not cover data use for AI like chatGPT, since neither of the side understood implications for that. It is like owning nukes is not covered by second amendment.
Well, I guess you could take them to court.
The important thing here IMO is not so much the enforceability as the intent. It was always obvious that Reddit would do whatever they wanted with the stuff we published there because they said they would do whatever they wanted with the stuff we published there. Personally, I knew this and just shrugged because it's no skin off my back if they do whatever they want with the stuff I published there - I was having fun posting, which was my goal. If they figured out some way to make those posts valuable then bully for them. They weren't otherwise valuable to me so it costs me nothing.
It's the same here on the Fediverse. When I post this stuff I'm tossing it out into the ether. It's on an open protocol intended to broadcast my comments to any compatible instances, so even if there isn't some literal terms of service that I signed that says "this content may show up on Threads or wherever" I know that it might show up on Threads or wherever. If I was truly fundamentally opposed to that then I wouldn't post.
As you could have guessed, I am on the same page with one exception (or addition) - I want my content to be used for free for AI training. My objection to Reddit agreement is that they want to paywall information needed for future progress.
Fortunately they may not really be able to. Reddit's comments and submissions are available here, and since this includes deleted content as well as the stuff that users have later edited away with scripts it may even be a better resource than what Reddit is offering itself. You'd need to train your AI in a legally permissive environment, of course, but there's places like that around the world and this is actually something that would advantage the "little guys" since they aren't as easy to target.