Reddit's AI Answers & Meta's Vibes App

0:00Social media companies are no longer treating AI like it's a side feature. I think more and more we're seeing that they're kind of positioning it as a core way that users are going to either discover content and then eventually how platforms are actually going to make money. Today on the show, I want to talk about some new things coming out of Meta. They're testing a standalone app for AI video generated content and also Reddit, who is looking to AI search as kind of their next money making monetization method, which is really interesting. Before we get into all of that, I want to say some really exciting news out of my own startup, AIbox.ai.

0:34we've just launched a$9 a month tier. So on AI box.ai, we have a playground that gives you access to over 40 of the top AI models from Anthropic and Google and Meta, Mistral, OpenAI, Perplexity, XAI. There's a bunch of really cool image generators like Ideogram, OpenAI and Black Forest Labs. And then of course, 11 labs for audio. So you get all of that for$9 a month. You get access to all of those different models and you can compare the results side by side in a chat thread. So the thing I love about it is it's one place that I can go to for all of my AI chats. I don't have to remember, you know, was I having this conversation with Anthropic or with OpenAI or Gemini because I use all of them for different things.

1:13So if you want to consolidate and keep all of your AI chats in one place, go check out AIbox.ai and check out our brand new $9 a month tier that we have just launched. All right, let's get into what's going on with AI and social media. So Reddit has just made a really interesting case. They were talking on Thursday to their investors and they said that AI powered search could become one of the most important long-term revenue opportunities for Reddit, which is interesting. This was during their fourth quarter earnings call. So all of the executives over at Reddit were, I think, really actively kind of merging their traditional search experience with generative AI search.

1:50But they suggested that while search wasn't yet monetized, that there was a huge opportunity there, which I think is interesting, right? I mean, we see Google obviously monetizing search, but they've been doing that for years. And so AI and search isn't anything new. We see perplexity as kind of a big player in the space. But right now, Reddit's bet is that generative AI is better suited to the kinds of questions that people actually ask on Reddit. So this is what their CEO, Steve Huffman, said. He said, there's a type of query we're particularly good at. I would argue the best on the internet, which is questions that have no single answer.

2:24The answer is actually multiple perspectives from lots of people. So his argument basically is that traditional search engines, Google, but I think you could even say perplexity in this, are basically optimized for navigation. They help you find a link or a destination. And he's saying that these LLMs, by contrast, are synthesizing content nuance, and then they're kind of showing some competing different viewpoints, which naturally maps to Reddit's discussion-driven content. He thinks that that combination is where Reddit is going to be headed. He said user behavior is basically showing that the strategy is gaining a lot of traction.

2:59So Reddit told their investors that weekly active users for search grew 30 % over the last year, up from 60 million to 80 million. They said that their AI-powered product, Reddit Answers, has grown even faster. It went from 1 million weekly active users in Q1 last year to 15 million by Q4. So Reddit is now investing in basically making those AI answers really rich, really engaging. And they said that they're modernizing the interface to include more media heavy responses. They've done a bunch of pilots that are kind of underway right now, but they also rolled out Reddit answers in five new languages and they're testing dynamic AI agents that appear alongside search results, including results that kind of extend beyond the text.

3:42So this is really interesting. I think underneath of all of these different product updates that they're rolling out, there's kind of a bigger shift in how Reddit is looking at themselves. So it's kind of interesting if you listen to like some of their executives talking to investors, they're basically saying that they're going to prepare for a future where Reddit isn't just a social network, which is of course what we all know Reddit for. It's always been a social network. But they're saying that this is going to be more of a destination for answers, right? So, I mean, I think we're used to, and it's kind of interesting how they're separating that as part of that transition, they're kind of planning to eliminate the distinction between like logged in and logged out users.

4:19And they're going to start doing that in the third quarter of this year. And instead, Reddit is going to be basically a personalized experience that uses AI and machine learning to show you the responses of people that would most likely answer your question, right? So if you ask a question, they're going to pull answers from threads similar to your question and show the ones that are most likely to respond. So it's not just AI-generated answers. It's like AI finding human-generated answers that are most likely to answer your question. It's really interesting. And basically, they're going to tailor the content to whoever shows up regardless of whether they have an account.

4:58So they're able to do this not just for users that are logged in but also logged out. I mean, basically they're saying Reddit is the internet and, you know, there, if you could look at an old analogy, it's like searching on Google and instead of, you know, showing a bunch of websites, they're showing a bunch of people's specific responses, but they're organizing responses to questions. So it's not just like, you know, in the olden days, I think you'd go on Reddit, you would ask a question, you would see a thread and you kind of read through all the comments on the thread, but maybe some of the comments on the thread don't align with what you believe or they aren't relevant to your particular part of the question, right?

5:31because lots of threads on Reddit can have someone ask like four questions, then people answer different parts of that. Maybe you only need to be answered to one part of this. So it's really an interesting concept that they're treating the responses themselves as results and feeding you the responses that are most likely to answer your particular question. Really cool. So right now, they said that they're also kind of looking beyond just their own platform. They have content licensing. They have a content licensing business, which basically lets other companies train AI models on their data. They said that that's grown a lot.

6:02That revenue is about, they reported that it's under Reddit's non-advertising category, which is about, I think it grew about 8 % year over year to about$36 million in the fourth quarter. And that's up 22 % to 140 million for the full year. So last year, it's$140 million that they made. I think right Right now, obviously, AI is growing. The demand for it is growing. I think Reddit's huge kind of pile of data and human conversations is just a super valuable asset. And then I think Reddit isn't alone in thinking, you know, in trying to like rethink how AI is going to change social platforms. So the other story I wanted to talk about is Meta and how they are also changing their platform for AI.

6:46they were talking on Thursday and they said that they are testing a standalone version of Vibes so it's basically an AI generated video app and you can I mean it's basically like competing with OpenAI who made Sora their own standalone video app now Sora I've also seen a lot of news headlines that it has kind of crashed in usage it's you know it's like a fun tool that people would go on there and use I personally remember it was a big pain but I got a lot of people invite codes. They could sign up for that because it was like invite only. And after, you know, I don't know, playing with it for a couple minutes, I mean, I didn't really want to scroll through AI slop videos.

7:22So I just moved on. I think, I don't think it's like completely dead, but I don't really think you need to have like an AI generated platform for video per se. I think eventually if people are just using AI and it's, you know, once the AI video generators are good enough and they don't, it's hard to differentiate between real footage. I think people are going to probably just start merging the two and you're just go back to using the regular platforms that you have always used. But you know, then I think a lot of these companies are like, well, we don't want to, you know, generate tons of slop and spam the whole internet.

7:53So we want to build like a specific place where it's just AI generated. So I think there's a lot of those kinds of things that they're grappling with. And meta evidently is in the middle of all of that. Vibes launched in September last year. And it's just inside of the meta AI app, but it basically lets you create and share short form videos that are, I mean, they're just 100 % AI. And I think the feed looks really similar to TikTok or like Instagram Reels, right? You're just swiping through it, but everything's AI generated. Meta didn't actually share any specific usage numbers. I think everything's going to look tiny compared to Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, but they did say the engagement inside of Meta AI is growing a ton, which I think they kind of view as a signal that there is demand for a dedicated Vibes product and them spinning that out.

8:36They also said that while a lot of users are already using AI content inside of Meta AI, they said a standalone app would basically give creators and viewers a really clear home for a lot of that. So Vibe lets users basically create videos from scratch, or you can remix content that you see in your feed before you post. Creators can add visuals, right? So you can add music, or you can kind of adjust some of the style. And then finished videos can be shared straight inside of Vibe's. And then you can also, send them in DMs or cross post to Instagram or Facebook or Reels, all that kind of stuff.

9:10So Meta says that right now they're kind of doing this collaborative sharing through their app. They said it's getting really popular. A lot of videos are being sent privately to friends, right? So it's not just like, oh, public feed of AI stuff. It's like you might go make a funny AI video, send it to a friend. Maybe it's them or you. And I think that right now, because of this, this kind of fits inside of Meta's broader monetization strategy. They already said that they are testing new premium subscriptions on Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp. And I think that they're going to plan to kind of explore some subscriptions for AI features as well.

9:43I mean, you look at Instagram and I think they made an insane amount of money just by adding the blue checkmark, like the verified, you know, pay to be verified on Instagram for 15 bucks a month. I think that was really popular. I think they made a lot of money from that. And so I think they're looking at more ways to monetize, you know, using something like Vibes where you'd have to get credits and AI credits to actually go and generate videos seems to be what's working. They right now have a free tier, but I think they're going to introduce kind of a paid subscription where you get more credits and probably better models in the future.

10:15So I think if you look at the whole system and the whole industry right now between Reddit and Meta, both of them are kind of going in the same direction. I think social platforms are increasingly seeing AI not just as like a tool to enhance the engagement and get people to use them more. I think they're looking more at AI as a way for people to discover new things, but also to eventually become new revenue streams, right? And so I think right now there's a huge question about whether AI is going to reshape social media. But also I think it's going to be how these companies are going to be turning this into a sustainable business because, you know, you look at how much money Meta is spending on AI.

10:51And of course people are like, well, they can afford to lose money. Look at what Zuckerberg did to, you know, the metaverse, just burning billions of dollars on it. But I think inevitably investors don't like that and the company doesn't like that. And so I think they do want to make revenue off of a lot of these investments. And because Meta has invested so heavily, I would not be surprised to see some paid tiers in the very near future where you can pay to get access to more of these AI features. Thank you so much for tuning into the podcast today. If you wanna get access to all of the latest AI models from Meta, but also from OpenAI and Anthropic and Google Gemini and 11 Labs and everyone else for only$9 a month, We just launched a$9 a month tier on AIbox.ai where you get access to over 40 of the top AI models.

11:32If you want to go check it out, there's a link in the description, AIbox.ai, and you can cancel all of your$20 subscriptions to all of your different platforms and get it all in one place. Thanks so much for tuning in and I'll catch you in the next episode.