Reddit moderators are fighting a losing battle against AI-generated content that’s flooding the platform and destroying user trust. Since ChatGPT’s public launch in late 2022, volunteer moderators have witnessed a surge in suspicious posts that follow predictable patterns but are increasingly difficult to identify with certainty.
The Scale of Reddit’s AI Problem
According to moderators of r/AmItheAsshole, one of Reddit’s largest communities with over 24 million members, as much as half of all content being posted to the platform may be created or enhanced by AI tools. Cassie, a volunteer moderator who spoke on condition of partial anonymity, explains that users are increasingly using AI to generate entire posts or edit their content for greater engagement.
The problem extends far beyond a single subreddit. A long-time moderator of r/AITAH, with nearly 7 million members, warns that certain types of communities are particularly vulnerable: “If you have a general wedding sub or AITA, relationships, or something like that, you will get hit hard.” This 18-year Reddit veteran views AI as potentially existential to the platform’s future, noting ominously that “the snake is going to swallow its own tail.”
Recognizing AI-Generated Content
Detecting AI-written posts remains largely subjective, with moderators developing their own sets of red flags. Common indicators include:
1. Posts that restate their title verbatim in the body text
2. Excessive use of em dashes and perfect grammar from accounts with previously poor spelling
3. New accounts posting formulaic content about common conflicts
4. An overall “uncanny valley” feeling in the writing style
Travis Lloyd, a PhD student at Cornell Tech researching AI challenges for Reddit moderators, confirms the difficulty: “At this point, it’s a bit of a you-know-it-when-you-see-it kind of vibe. Right now, there are no reliable tools to detect it 100 percent of the time.”
The Feedback Loop Problem
The situation grows more complex as AI and human content begin to influence each other. “AI is trained off people, and people copy what they see other people doing,” explains Cassie. “People become more like AI, and AI becomes more like people.” This creates a feedback loop where detecting artificial content becomes increasingly difficult.
This problem is particularly acute on Reddit, which has sued AI companies like Anthropic and Perplexity for allegedly scraping Reddit content without permission to train their models. The platform’s content is now being recycled through AI systems and fed back into the communities that created it originally.
Beyond Engagement: The Darker Motivations
AI-generated content isn’t just about farming karma (Reddit’s upvote system). Moderators report seeing targeted campaigns using AI to generate inflammatory content about marginalized groups. During Pride Month, r/AITAH experienced a flood of anti-trans posts, while other communities see regular waves of content designed to provoke outrage toward specific demographics.
Tom, who moderated r/Ukraine for three years, witnessed how AI tools amplified disinformation campaigns: “It was like one guy standing in a field against a tidal wave. You can create so much noise with such little effort.”
The Monetization Factor
Financial incentives also drive AI content creation on Reddit. High-karma accounts can be sold for real money, with Tom noting, “My Reddit account is worth a lot of money, and I know because people keep trying to buy it.” The Reddit Contributor Program allows users to monetize upvotes and awards, creating direct financial incentives for generating engagement through any means necessary.
Other accounts use AI to quickly build karma to meet posting thresholds in adult content communities, where they can then promote paid services like OnlyFans. “Sometimes it’s real, sometimes it’s an actual conflict they have actually had, sometimes it’s fake, sometimes either way it’s AI-generated,” says Cassie. “They’re just trying to use the system the way that it’s been set up.”
The Human Cost
For regular Reddit users, the prevalence of AI content has fundamentally changed their relationship with the platform. Ally, a 26-year-old from Florida, has noticed Reddit “really going downhill” and spends less time there than before. “I don’t know if my interactions are real anymore,” she explains.
The r/AITAH moderator summarizes the emotional toll: “AI burns everybody out. I see people put an immense amount of effort into finding resources for people, only to get answered back with ‘Ha, you fell for it, this is all a lie.'”
This burden extends beyond Reddit to other domains grappling with AI content. As Lloyd notes, “What Reddit moderators are dealing with is what people all over the place are dealing with right now… it takes incredibly little effort to create AI-generated content that looks plausible, and it takes way more effort to evaluate it.”
While Reddit claims to be “the most human place on the Internet,” maintaining that humanity now requires constant vigilance from unpaid volunteers fighting against increasingly sophisticated AI content that threatens the authentic connections that once defined the platform.