Reddit has developed tools powered by large language models (LLMs) to combat the surge in spam and bot-generated content, much of which is created using LLMs. The platform said these tools are more effective at identifying spam than previous methods, particularly in catching subtle, coordinated patterns of fake behavior. According to Reddit, the updated systems have significantly improved the platform’s ability to block spam, with 23 million spam views blocked daily and around 25,000 new spam posts and comments detected each day.
The company claims that its new spam detection tools have reduced users’ exposure to spam by 20% from January to March compared to the prior three months. Reddit’s approach involves using LLMs to analyze and flag content that mimics human behavior, a task that older systems struggled with. This method allows the platform to catch spam that is increasingly sophisticated and harder to detect with traditional methods.
Reddit is not alone in facing this challenge; platforms like YouTube, Meta, and Instagram allow AI-generated content as long as it is disclosed, while TikTok lets users adjust how much AI content they see. However, experts emphasize that AI content moderation must be combined with human review to achieve the best results. "We leverage LLMs to catch the highly subtle, coordinated patterns of fake behavior and artificial hype that older systems once missed," a Reddit blog post says.
Source: techcrunch
