On: Google cut a deal with Reddit for AI training data

[jpalawaga]

I know reddit has hired a lot. This sort of feel like a fundraising round to keep operations afloat.

This must be the real reason for destroying public API access.

[SeanAnderson → jpalawaga]

Source for Reddit hiring more than average tech company? I feel like every tech company scaled up in the bull market and then trimmed back down when hype subsided. For example, Google grew by 72,000 between 2019 and 2022 and has since shed about 20,000.

Reddit is IPOing next month. IMHO they cut public API access as a way to simplify and pump bookkeeping numbers to get a better listing price.

[bbor → SeanAnderson]

To be fair, “they were only as insane as everyone else” doesn’t necessarily mean that they didn’t vastly over-hire. I mean Jesus I got hired in Silicon Valley in 2022, it was crazy out there

[shmatt → jpalawaga]

In the long term no company offers free unlimited APIs like that. It was a dumb decision to offer it in the last 5 years