AI Slop Is Ruining Reddit for Everyone

A Reddit post astir a bride who demands a wedding impermanent deterioration a specific, unflattering shadiness is definite to provoke rage, fto unsocial 1 astir a bridesmaid oregon parent of the groom who wants to deterioration white. A script wherever a genitor asks idiosyncratic connected an airplane to power seats truthful they tin beryllium adjacent to their young kid is apt to invoke the aforesaid unreserved of anger. But those posts whitethorn trigger a Reddit moderator’s annoyance for a antithetic reason—they are communal themes wrong a increasing genre of AI-generated, fake posts.

These are examples that outpouring to caput for Cassie, 1 of dozens of moderators for r/AmItheAsshole. With implicit 24 cardinal members, it's 1 of the biggest subreddits, and it explicitly bans AI-generated contented and different made-up stories. Since precocious 2022, erstwhile ChatGPT archetypal launched to the public, Cassie (who wanted to beryllium referred to by archetypal sanction only) and different radical who unpaid their clip to mean Reddit posts person been struggling with an influx of AI content. Some of it is wholly AI-generated, portion different users person taken to editing their posts and comments with AI programs similar Grammarly.

“It’s astir apt much prevalent than anybody wants to truly admit, due to the fact that it’s conscionable truthful casual to shove your station into ChatGPT and accidental ‘Hey, marque this much exciting,’” says Cassie, who thinks arsenic overmuch arsenic fractional of each contented being posted to Reddit whitethorn person been created oregon reworked with AI successful immoderate way.

r/AmItheAsshole is simply a pillar of Reddit culture, a format that has inspired dozens if not hundreds of derivatives similar r/AmIOverreacting, r/AmITheDevil, and r/AmItheKameena, a subreddit with implicit 100,000 members described arsenic “Am I the asshole, but the Indian version.” Posts thin to diagnostic stories astir interpersonal conflicts, wherever Redditors tin measurement successful connected who is incorrect (“YTA” means “You’re the asshole,” portion “ESH” means “Everyone sucks here”), who is right, and what the champion people of enactment to instrumentality is moving forward. Users and moderators crossed these r/AmItheAsshole variants person reported seeing much contented they fishy is AI-generated, and others accidental it's a sitewide contented happening successful each kinds of subreddits.

“If you person a wide wedding sub oregon AITA, relationships, oregon thing similar that, you volition get deed hard,” says a moderator of r/AITAH, a variant of r/AmItheAsshole that has astir 7 cardinal members. This moderator, a retiree who spoke connected the information of anonymity, has been progressive connected Reddit for 18 years—most of its existence—and besides had decades of acquisition successful the web concern earlier that. She views AI arsenic a imaginable existential menace to the platform.

“Reddit itself is either going to person to bash something, oregon the snake is going to swallow its ain tail,” she says. “It’s getting to the constituent wherever the AI is feeding the AI.”

In a effect to a petition for comment, a Reddit spokesperson said: “Reddit is the astir quality spot connected the Internet, and we privation it to enactment that way. We prohibit manipulated contented and inauthentic behavior, including misleading AI bot accounts posing arsenic radical and overseas power campaigns. Clearly labeled AI-generated contented is mostly allowed arsenic agelong arsenic it’s wrong a community’s rules and our sitewide rules.” The spokesperson added that determination were implicit 40 cardinal “spam and manipulated contented removals” successful the archetypal fractional of 2025.

Vibe Shift for the Worse

Ally, a 26-year-old who tutors astatine a assemblage assemblage successful Florida and spoke utilizing her archetypal sanction lone for her privacy, has noticed Reddit “really going downhill” successful the past twelvemonth due to the fact that of AI. Her feelings are shared by different users successful subreddits similar r/EntitledPeople, r/simpleliving, and r/self, wherever posts successful the past twelvemonth person bemoaned the emergence of suspected AI. The specified anticipation that thing could beryllium AI-generated has already eroded spot betwixt users. “AI is turning Reddit into a heap of garbage,” 1 relationship wrote successful r/AmITheJerk. “Even if a station suspected of being AI isn’t, conscionable the beingness of AI is similar having a spy successful the room. Suspicion itself is an enemy.” Ally utilized to bask speechmaking subreddits similar r/AmIOverreacting. But present she doesn’t cognize if her interactions are existent anymore, and she’s spending little clip connected the level than successful years past.

“AI burns everybody out,” says the r/AITAH moderator. “I spot radical enactment an immense magnitude of effort into uncovering resources for people, lone to get answered backmost with ‘Ha, you fell for it, this is each a lie.’”

Detecting AI

There are fewer foolproof ways to beryllium that thing is AI oregon not, and astir mundane radical are relying connected their ain intuition. Text tin beryllium adjacent harder to measure than photos and videos, which often person beauteous definitive tells. Five Redditors who spoke to WIRED each had antithetic strategies for identifying AI-generated text. Cassie notices erstwhile posts restate their rubric verbatim successful the assemblage oregon usage em dashes, arsenic good arsenic erstwhile a poster has unspeakable spelling and punctuation successful their remark past but posts thing with cleanable grammar. Ally is thrown disconnected by recently created Reddit accounts and posts with emojis successful the title. The r/AITAH mod gets an “uncanny valley” feeling from definite posts. But these “tells” could besides beryllium contiguous successful a station that isn’t utilizing AI astatine all.

“At this point, it’s a spot of a you-know-it-when-you-see-it benignant of vibe,” says Travis Lloyd, a PhD pupil astatine Cornell Tech who has published probe into caller AI-driven challenges that Reddit moderators face. “Right now, determination are nary reliable tools to observe it 100 percent of the time. So radical person their strategies, but they’re not needfully foolproof.”

Plus, arsenic much AI substance appears successful the wild, radical commencement mimicking the commonalities of AI-generated connection whether they usage AI oregon not. On Reddit, the AI feedback loop whitethorn beryllium adjacent much incestuous, since the level has sued AI companies similar Anthropic and Perplexity for allegedly scraping Reddit contented without consent to bid chatbots. Google’s AI summary results person infamously pulled from Reddit comments that are really sarcastic jokes, similar a idiosyncratic who suggested utilizing glue to marque food instrumentality to pizza crust better.

“AI is trained disconnected people, and radical transcript what they spot different radical doing,” Cassie says. “People go much similar AI, and AI becomes much similar people.”

Rage-Bait Targeting Minorities

Both AITA moderators accidental they’ve observed a inclination of rage-bait posts that could beryllium written with AI and look to beryllium conscionable to malign trans radical and different susceptible populations. The r/AITAH moderator says the subreddit received a deluge of anti-trans contented during Pride Month, portion Cassie says it pops up successful the moderation queue intermittently.

“Stuff similar ‘My parents didn’t usage my chosen sanction and I’m trans and I blew up connected them due to the fact that however situation they’ oregon ‘Somebody assumed my sex and I’m cis but however situation they presume my gender,’” Cassie says. “They’re conscionable meant to marque you huffy astatine trans people, astatine cheery people, astatine Black people, astatine women.”

In subreddits that revolve astir quality and politics, AI has enabled caller ways of spreading disinformation. It’s thing that Tom, a Redditor who helped mean r/Ukraine for 3 years and spoke utilizing lone his archetypal sanction for privacy, encountered alongside societal manipulation techniques similar astroturfing that predated programs similar ChatGPT. But now, AI tin automate those tactics, making it adjacent harder for quality moderators to support up.

“It was similar 1 feline lasting successful a tract against a tidal wave,” Tom says. “You tin make truthful overmuch sound with specified small effort.”

On r/Ukraine, which has adjacent to a cardinal members, Tom remembers getting grooming from different mods to effort and mitigate the dispersed of Russian propaganda and adjacent receiving specialized enactment from Reddit admins, who are a measurement supra the volunteers and really enactment for and get paid by Reddit.

Monetizing Karma

In summation to ideological motivations, determination are besides little-known ways to monetize Reddit content. Some are much obvious, similar the Reddit Contributor Program, which lets posters marque wealth from getting upvotes (referred to arsenic “karma”) and awards that different users tin acquisition for them. Reddit hustlers tin theoretically usage AI-generated contented to rack up karma, nett from it, and adjacent merchantability their accounts.

“My Reddit relationship is worthy a batch of money, and I cognize due to the fact that radical support trying to bargain it,” Tom says. “It could besides beryllium utilized for nefarious purposes, but I fishy a batch of it is radical who are bored and person time, they’re similar ‘Well, I could marque a 100 bucks successful a period connected the broadside by doing astir nothing.’”

Other accounts request the karma to get entree to station successful NSFW subreddits that person karma requirements to bash so, wherever they tin past beforehand things similar OnlyFans links. Both Cassie and the r/AITAH moderator person noticed accounts posting successful their larger subreddits to rack up karma earlier moving connected to posting big content. Some of them are scammers. Others whitethorn conscionable beryllium trying to marque a living.

“Sometimes it’s real, sometimes it’s an existent struggle they person really had, sometimes it’s fake, sometimes either mode it’s AI-generated,” Cassie says. “I astir privation to telephone it gamification, wherever they’re conscionable trying to usage the strategy the mode that it’s been acceptable up.”

The other clip it takes for Reddit moderators to sift done imaginable AI worldly is simply a reflection of however AI contented successful wide has created caller roadblocks, which extends good beyond the realm of societal media moderation.

“What Reddit moderators are dealing with is what radical each implicit the spot are dealing with close now, which is adjusting to a satellite wherever it takes incredibly small effort to make AI-generated contented that looks plausible, and it takes mode much effort to measure it,” Lloyd says. “That’s a existent load connected them, similar it is for teachers and whoever else.”