Reddit CEO Steve Huffman explains why Reddit has effectively become the "modern oil" powering today's AI systems: Steve describes the scale of Reddit's role in shaping the AI we use today: "There's no AI as we know them without Reddit. Reddit is one of the single largest sources of training data for the LLMs and Reddit continues to be one of the primary sources of both training data and we're also the most cited platform across all models per Profound." This level of influence has transformed how Steve thinks about the content on the platform. Reddit has moved beyond being a discussion site and become core infrastructure for the modern internet: "What we found ourselves in this position is where the content on Reddit has effectively become like oil. Like modern oil is this foundational resource for the modern internet." Steve then explains the mechanics behind why Reddit's data is so valuable. Despite how advanced AI seems, the underlying process is more straightforward than it appears: "The reason for this is because there's no artificial intelligence without actual intelligence. At the end of the day, these models are quite simple. They're regurgitating on an absolutely massive scale what they've consumed elsewhere." And a huge portion of what they've consumed traces back to one source: "A large portion of that consumption is actually just the human conversation on Reddit. Because it's natural and it covers basically every topic imaginable." In a moment where AI dominates the conversation, Steve's point is a useful anchor — actual intelligence is still the raw material behind artificial intelligence.