Search engines were among the first to push AI answers. These use artificial intelligence to generate answers for user queries and are often placed prominently.
If you ask me, these are hit or miss. Sometimes, they provide answers that are dead on. At other times, they recommend to eat one rock per day.
Reddit, which calls itself the homepage of the Internet, has launched its own AI-tool Answers some time ago.
Answers works like other AI communication tools. You write something and get a response. You may then refine or ask follow-up questions, and get another response.
In its latest earnings call, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman announced that the company was working on AI-powered search results.
Reddit’s integrated search feature does not use AI currently. It returns subreddits and posts based on the user’s query. Since it works so-so, some users prefer to use regular search engines instead to find content on Reddit.
Techcrunch reports that Reddit plans to launch an “upgraded search experience” this year. This is achieved by integrating Answers into search.
For Huffman, the integration is just the first step to go head-to-head with search engine giant Google.
He said:
I think helping the user be able to search directly on Reddit, refine their queries on Reddit, eventually come directly to Reddit for those types of queries, and even integrating search into something like onboarding over time..
So, instead of going to Google, Bing, or another search engine to find answers, Reddit users might start their searches on Reddit and stay on Reddit. That seems to be the vision of Reddit’s CEO.
How search engines will react to this remains to be seen. Reddit may be a massive site, but it still pales in comparison to the traffic that Google or Microsoft gets.
I expect more AI integration in more search tools and more communities going forward. Good news is that these can be ignored largely or removed.
What is your take on AI-powered search? Something that you use, are interested in, or ignore? Feel free to leave a comment about it below.