Over the past few years, the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) have developed at breakneck speed. While some have heralded the developments as a welcome technological revolution, others remain fearful of AI.
Now, new reporting has highlighted how what we post on social media apps like Reddit, Instagram and Facebook is being used to develop AI software – regardless of whether we want it to or not.
Social Media Users Speak Out
“A… significant portion of the population just kind of feels helpless,” said volunteer Reddit moderator Sarah Gilbert about AI using people’s posts without their consent.
Gilbert, who also studies online communities at Cornell University added, “There’s nowhere to go except just completely going offline or not contributing in ways that bring value to them and value to others.”
How Companies Are Responding
Many companies have begun to respond to users’ concerns about AI, while also increasing their own reliance on AI.
Stack Overflow, which offers programming tips, originally banned responses written by ChatGPT, but is now partnering with AI developers and has punished users who protested by erasing their past contributions to the site.
Stack Overflow CEO Comments
Prashanth Chandrasekar, the CEO of Stack Overflow, said the company is attempting to balance demand for instant AI-generated responses and genuine human assistance.
“Fast forward five years…There’s going to be very few places where there’s truly authentic, original human thought. And we’re one of those places,” he said.
The Changing Face of Stack Overflow
The AP’s Matt O’Brien writes, “For more than a decade, users typically landed on Stack Overflow after typing a coding question in Google, and then found the answer, copied and pasted it. The answers they were most likely to see came from volunteers who’d built up points measuring their credibility — which in some cases could help land them a job.”
He added, “Now programmers can simply ask an AI chatbot — some of which are already trained on everything ever posted to Stack Overflow — and it can instantly spit out an answer.”
Stack Users Protest
To protest Stack Overflow’s embrace of AI, some users deleted their old comments so that those comments could not be used by AI software. However, the company responded by suspending their accounts.
Chandrasekar said those protestors represented a small minority of users, and he defended the measures taken against them. “We quickly addressed it and said, ‘Look, that’s not acceptable behavior’,” he said.
Apple Embraces AI
Stack Overflow isn’t the only company moving towards embracing AI. In June, Apple unveiled their iOS 18 system update, and revealed they would be partnering with ChatGPT.
The move earned the ire of Elon Musk, who threatened to ban Apple devices from his companies and Tweeted, “It’s patently absurd that Apple isn’t smart enough to make their own AI, yet is somehow capable of ensuring that OpenAI will protect your security & privacy!”
AI Developments Earn Government Backlash
Recently, Brazil’s national data protection authority took steps to ban Meta Platforms from training its AI using Facebook and Instagram posts from Brazilians.
Meta condemned the move by Brazilian authorities, calling it a “step backwards for innovation” and claiming they had remained transparent when it came to their use of AI.
On Reddit, A Different Approach Takes Hold
While Reddit has partnered with AI developers like Google and OpenAI, they’ve made clear that user’s content can’t be used for AI models in bulk “with no regard for user rights or privacy.”
Unlike Stack Overflow, Reddit hasn’t punished users who protested their AI partnerships by deleting past content.
For Reddit Users, Concerns Persist
While Reddit’s approach may seem more ethical than that taken by other companies, many users are still concerned at the increasing flow of AI-generated commentary on the site.
Moderator Gilbert said, “People come to Reddit because they want to talk to people, they don’t want to talk to bots.” Yet, she added, “there’s a real risk that eventually it could end up pushing people out.”
