Nick Perry explains how Reddit became crucial training data for ChatGPT. AI models predict the next word by learning patterns from text, and Reddit's real conversations supplied enormous amounts of that pattern data. Perry calls Reddit the "oil" that powered the AI boom.
ChatGPT would not exist as you know it without Reddit. And I know that sounds backwards, but hear me out. See, Reddit became one of the biggest sources used to train these models, and top AI engines say it is the platform they cite most. Which means when you ask ChatGPT for advice, it does not create wisdom from nothing. It predicts what comes next from patterns it already consumed. A large part of which came from real people talking on Reddit. That is why Reddit was like oil under the AI boom, because artificial intelligence still starts with actual intelligence.
