ChatGPT mysteriously stops citing Reddit in many responses to users
Reddit citations by ChatGPT have took a sudden nosedive this month. What's going on?
A recent report by AI search and analytics company PromptWatch reveals a significant drop in Reddit citations within ChatGPT's responses over a four-day period. The data shows that Reddit's citation share in ChatGPT Search fell more than 86 percent, going from an average of 3.83 percent to less than 1 percent. This sudden decline has left many puzzled, as there is no clear explanation for why Reddit fell out of favor with ChatGPT.
Although other platforms, such as Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, also experienced slight decreases in Reddit citations during the same timeframe, PromptWatch reports that the drastic drop in ChatGPT's citations is unique. The report also mentions that ChatGPT changed its search process on August 8, but this cannot be the cause for the massive drop days later on August 14.
A similar decline in Reddit citations on ChatGPT occurred in September of the previous year, which was attributed to a search parameter change by Google. This change affected multiple tools, including ChatGPT. Reddit has a complicated relationship with AI and scraping bots, with increased spam and promotional GEO tactics due to the AI boom.
However, Reddit has also benefited from AI, signing a lucrative deal with OpenAI to train its LLMs using Reddit user content. It remains unclear whether Reddit or OpenAI made a deliberate decision, causing the citation decline. Nonetheless, it is possible that ChatGPT will revert to regularly sourcing Reddit again.
Written by urgent.news from Mashable's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
