Post from Reddit information about a bride requiring her wedding guest to wear a specific, unflattering shade is sure to raise eyebrows, let alone a bridesmaid or mother of the groom who wants to wear white. The scenario where a parent asks someone on an airplane to change seats so they can sit next to their youthful child is likely to trigger the same burst of anger. But these posts may irritate a Reddit moderator for another reason – they’re common topics in the growing genre of AI-generated phony posts.
These are the examples that come to mind for Cassie, one of the dozens of moderators of r/AmItheAsshole. With over 24 million members, it is one of the largest subreddits and explicitly bans AI-generated content and other made-up stories. Since behind schedule 2022, when ChatGPT was first made publicly available, Cassie (who wanted to be addressed only by her first name) and others who volunteered their time to moderate posts on Reddit have been struggling with an influx of AI content. Some of them are entirely AI-generated, while other users have started editing their posts and comments using AI programs like Grammarly.
“It’s probably more common than anyone wants to admit because it’s very easy to throw your post into ChatGPT and say, ‘Hey, make it more exciting,'” says Cassie, who believes that as much as half of all content posted on Reddit may have been created or altered in some way using artificial intelligence.
r/AmItheAsshole is a pillar of Reddit culture, a format that has inspired dozens if not hundreds of derivatives such as r/AmIOverreacting, r/AmITheDevil and r/AmItheKameena, a subreddit with over 100,000 members described as “Am I an Asshole, but the Indian version”. Posts typically feature stories of interpersonal conflict, where Redditors can judge who is wrong (“YTA” stands for “you’re an asshole” and “ESH” stands for “everyone here sucks”), who is right, and what the best course of action to take is to move forward. Users and moderators of these variants of r/AmItheAsshole have reported seeing more content that they believe is AI-generated, and others say it is a site-wide problem occurring on all kinds of subreddits.
“If you have a sub on weddings, AITA, relationships or anything like that, you’re going to get hit hard,” says a moderator of r/AITAH, a variant of r/AmItheAsshole, which has nearly 7 million members. The moderator, a retiree who spoke on the condition of anonymity, has been vigorous on Reddit for 18 years – most of its existence – and also had decades of prior experience in online business. He sees artificial intelligence as a potential existential threat to the platform.
“Reddit itself will have to do something, or the snake will swallow its own tail,” he says. “We’re getting to the point where AI is feeding AI.”