Reddit is moving toward verifying users’ humanity after a controversial AI experiment revealed just how easily artificial intelligence can infiltrate online communities.
The shift comes in response to a university-led study that unleashed a swarm of AI-powered bots onto the Change My View subreddit, where they posted over 1,700 comments while pretending to be real users — including personas like abuse survivors and anti-BLM voices.
Reddit swiftly condemned the experiment as “improper and highly unethical” and filed a formal complaint against the university involved. But the platform now faces a broader concern: how to ensure its content remains authentic, especially as it licenses user-generated posts to OpenAI and other companies for training AI models.
In a post on Monday, CEO Steve Huffman announced Reddit would begin working with third-party services to verify users as human — and, in some regions, verify age — while maintaining user anonymity. “We never want to know your name or who you are,” Huffman wrote. The goal is to “keep Reddit human” and comply with emerging regulatory requirements.
While Reddit has not disclosed which services it will use, similar platforms rely on ID-verification tools like Persona, Stripe Identity, or Plaid — many of which require users to upload a government-issued ID. Privacy advocates warn this could jeopardize the anonymity that makes Reddit a haven for personal and sensitive discussions. Huffman, however, stressed that Reddit will remain “extremely protective” of user data and resist unwarranted demands from authorities.
