Google AI Overview: Reddit’s Deal + Ranking Strategies

After this year’s Google I/O, Google’s high hopes for AI are clearer than ever - especially when it comes to search. 

In this post, we’ll explore a particular angle of the Google AI story that raises interesting questions about content ownership, SEO fair play, and content creators’ role in the new, AI-driven internet. 

Google AI + Reddit: What’s the story?

In early 2024, Google and Reddit announced a partnership with AI at the center. Reddit provided Google with a special tool called the Reddit Data API. This tool allows Google to access all of Reddit’s user-generated content in real-time and use it to train its AI models. On the other hand, Reddit is improving its own search and features using Google’s Vertex AI.  So Reddit’s providing a constant stream of user-generated content to train AI with, in exchange for support developing better search capabilities.

This partnership raises a few questions. 

For starters: Who really owns Reddit’s content? If the content is user-generated, why is the company deciding to license it out to Google as if it were its own? Should users assume that everything they post on social media belongs to the platforms?

On the other hand, remember when websites had Google-powered search for their own content? Could Google be considering selling AI-powered search capabilities to large platforms? 

And if we want to get into the nitty-gritty: How much of Reddit’s content is actually human-generated? Is there a chance of AI cannibalization?

Reddit’s Automated Activity Problem

Recently, Reddit has faced some problems related to automated activity and AI-generated content. A notable incident involved researchers from the University of Zurich secretly deploying AI-powered bots on the popular subreddit r/changemyview between November ‘24 and March ‘25.

These bots impersonated real users, including sensitive personas such as trauma survivors and minorities, to test the persuasive power of AI in changing users' opinions. Of course, for the experiment to work, these users’ artificiality had to remain undisclosed, so the researchers didn’t ask for consent from the community.

This activity violated subreddit rules banning undisclosed AI use and automated accounts. Reddit’s Chief Legal Officer deemed it "deeply wrong on both a moral and legal level”. Reddit pursued legal action against the university.

Allegedly, the scale of AI activity on Reddit is extensive, with some reports suggesting that up to 70% of comments in certain subreddits may be generated by bots. These bots create artificial conversations that can appear entirely human, complicating efforts to maintain authentic user interactions. Reddit's own automated systems have ironically rewarded some bot accounts with badges, highlighting the challenge of managing this issue. 

The rise of AI bots capable of producing convincing arguments and engaging users jeopardizes the trustworthiness of Reddit communities. In an internet that’s increasingly crowded with scams and “AI slop”, some users append “reddit” to their Google queries, to filter out marketing content and fake reviews. Sadly, this tactic no longer works. 

In response to these challenges, Reddit has announced plans to implement stricter verification protocols to better distinguish human users from bots and preserve the authenticity of discussions on its platform. 

Going back to the Google AI-Reddit deal: Google has emphasized that it aims to use Reddit’s "authentic, human conversations and experiences" to improve its AI systems and search products, but the infiltration of AI-generated content on Reddit complicates this goal. Since Google's AI models will be trained on Reddit’s content, a prevalence of AI-generated material could lead to a deterioration in outputs - or, to put it in more sensationalist terms, “model collapse”. 

It may be a good time to ask ourselves:

Is Google AI Accurate?

After everything we’ve discussed, you may be wondering: Is Google AI accurate enough for mass adoption?

AI Overviews, which summarize web content using AI, have already scaled to 1.5 billion users in 200 countries. Google reports that AI overviews have driven higher user satisfaction. But this claim is rather questionable. 

Multiple studies and user reports reveal that Google AI, including its AI Overviews, can confidently produce incorrect or misleading information, a phenomenon known as “hallucination.” This is common across generative AI tools - and it’s one of the greatest barriers to fully delegating workflows to unsupervised AI. 

For example, a Columbia University study found AI search engines, including Google’s Gemini, gave wrong answers over 60% of the time when citing news articles, often fabricating sources or citing incorrect ones.

A myriad of real-world errors have been documented, such as AI Overviews incorrectly labeling Barack Obama’s religion as Muslim or denying the existence of African countries starting with “K” like Kenya. Some AI-generated summaries link to irrelevant or unrelated sources, undermining trust.

Social media and user feedback highlight bizarre or inaccurate AI-generated definitions and explanations for phrases that do not exist, showing the AI’s struggle with uncommon or nonsensical queries.

Despite Google’s assurances, public trust remains low, especially in the U.S., where only about 32% of people express trust in AI, partly due to these reliability issues.

As long as AI hallucinations continue being a problem, content creators reporting their first-hand experiences and putting a face to their statements will have a clear competitive advantage against AI. 

Is Reddit SEO Worth It?

Let’s take a practical approach - all things considered, is Reddit SEO worth it?

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Ever seen this meme before? It became popular on Twitter/X a couple of years ago, during the height of the “sarcastic fast food company” trend. When Wendy’s or Burger King tried to quickly capitalize on a trend by posting like a teenage girl, users replied with this image en masse.

While this meme comes from Twitter, it’s also representative of Reddit users’ opinion of branded content. Just like the communities take unkindly to AI-generated content, they dislike native advertising masquerading as genuine recommendations.

And - who can blame them?! While promotional content has its time and place, there has to be unbiased content somewhere online. Additionally, Reddit’s outgoing links are all no-follow, so spamming your company’s landing pages across subreddits isn’t a viable linkbuilding strategy.

Want to leverage Reddit in your digital marketing strategy? If you’ve got a large user base, create a subreddit for your product! 

Psss, you may be interested in our guide to Community-Led Growth for Startups. 

On the other hand, you can use Reddit to:

• Identify user needs and trends beyond keyword research. 
• Understand what users say about your product when you’re not looking. 

But, at this point in internet history, masquerading as a user doesn’t cut it.

Your Partner for Future-Proof Content Strategy

The rules of content marketing are changing fast, in unpredictable directions. So it’s reasonable to fear that your content investment may go to waste. If you’re looking for a content strategy partner that can help you maximize results while minimizing risks, apply for a free strategy workshop. 

Not ready for a partnership? Check out our resources and apply our expertise with your in-house team. 

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