Are You Getting Advice from a Human or Bot? Reddit Shows Spikes in AI Content

At this point, anyone that uses the internet (i.e. everyone) knows what Reddit is. Even if you’re not an active Reddit user, you’ve most likely ended up there at one point or another - more than likely while searching a question or advice through Google. Reddit is a place where users can share their thoughts, seek advice from peers, tell their stories and receive judgment. More recently, it’s also become a hotspot for finding real answers to search queries. 

Since Google’s November core update, Reddit has seen a major boost in keyword rankings and traffic. These core changes have negatively impacted websites, positively impacted larger sites, and positively impacted Reddit for user search queries. Although no one knows what’s going on under the hood at Google, many have attributed this Reddit spike to users wanting more helpful information/answers from real people, rather than generic blog posts that are manipulated for search engine rankings. Many of which may be heavily influenced and written using generative AI tools (like ChatGPT).

While website owners may not like this change, some users may prefer it, as it does (in some capacity) offer more helpful content and answers to search queries (this is open for debate, but a conversation for another time). 

But, how helpful is Reddit really? Are users getting the best answers through this medium? How do we know that AI isn’t being used on Reddit? 

Understanding how much AI, if any, is being used on Reddit can be difficult, due to both the sheer size of Reddit’s community/posts and detecting AI accurately. Despite the difficulty, we had our team dig into this to get a better understanding - and although we can’t get the full scope of this answer, we do know that AI is being used in some Reddit forums.  

Below is our analysis and links to more detailed data on AI in Reddit. 

AI in Popular Reddit Judgement Forums

In this dataset, we looked at three popular judgement subreddits: TrueOffMyChest, RelationshipAdvice, and AmITheAsshole. The above graph shows AI content detected for the year 2023 in the subreddit AITA. Below is a summary of our findings:

• In TOMC, AI content peaked in 2020, disappeared in 2021, and started again in 2022, accounting for 1.69% of the total dataset by 2023. 
• In RelationshipAdvice, AI content peaked in 2022 at 7.52% of the dataset, and dropped to 2.33% in 2023. 
• AmITheAsshole had 8% AI content in 2019, none from 2020 to 2022, and spiked to 12.54% in 2023. It also had large spikes during specific months of 2023, with a peak of 30% in November.

You can read the full study here: AI in Reddit: Are You Getting Advice from an AI or Human?

Up to 45% AI Content in SEO & Marketing Subreddits

In this dataset, we examined multiple subreddits related to SEO and digital marketing. The graph above shows the percentage of AI in particular subreddits in 2024 so far. Here are the main takeaways from the data:

• In the selected SEO subreddits, AI Content has a range of 30.85%, with the Affiliate Market subreddit holding the majority with 45.74%.
• In Marketing subreddits, AI Content has a range of 23.53%, with the Content_marketing subreddit holding the majority with 45.74%.
• In 2024 subreddits, AI Content has a range of 19.85% with Content_marketing holding the majority once again with 33.33%. 
• When analyzing the distribution of AI generated content in all subreddits, Marketing based subreddits accounted for the majority of the dataset. 

You can read the full study here: Up to 45% AI Content in SEO & Marketing Subreddits

174% Increase in AI Content in Popular Writing Subreddits

In this study, we examined two popular writing-based subreddits: NoSleep and Fantasy. Although we saw varying AI data when comparing both year over year, we did see a large spike in AI content for both subreddits in 2024 (so far). Below is a summary of the findings: 

• In the NoSleep subreddit, AI growth rose to 15.09% in 2023 and accounts for 41.39% so far into 2024. 
• Within the Fantasy Subreddit AI content steadily decreased from 2020 to 2023 to 2.4%, but so far into 2024, it accounts for 10.9% of the dataset. 
• Correlation between Word Count and AI Score in the fantasy subreddit shows that a higher percentage of AI-detected content ranges between 500 - 1,000 words for 2020-2021, while it ranges between 500 - 900 words for the years 2022 - 2023. The AI Score also has a larger range in the 2020 - 2021 dataset than it does in the 2022 - 2023 dataset.
• Within the top-rated filters by week, month, year, and all-time in the NoSleep subreddit, the range for AI content is 12% with “All Time” having the minority of 30% AI and “Month” having the majority of 43% AI. 

You can read the full study here: 174% Increase in AI Content in Popular Writing Subreddits