Reddit leadership criticizes Google AI Overviews over declining referral traffic

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman criticized Google AI Overviews during an earnings call with investors. The feature automatically summarizes search results for most queries. In a letter to investors, he wrote that while synthetic content is flooding the internet, people crave a real human perspective, and described Reddit as an "antidote" to the automated web — in his view, AI compresses the internet into summaries, while Reddit offers in-depth discussions, passionate debates and personal experiences.

In his comments on the results, Huffman added that the traditional "10 blue links" approach had brought considerable value and growth to the broader ecosystem, while Google AI Overviews, in his words, have yet to deliver a similar positive contribution — and he believes this holds true across the industry for companies, publishers and merchants that are still seeking a mutually beneficial solution.

Reddit has a long-standing, beneficial licensing agreement with Google worth 60 million dollars, but according to a Wall Street Journal report from this month, it is considering terminating it. According to the same report, other major publishers, including The Economist, Reuters, Politico and USA Today, are considering the same move. Reddit also has a separate licensing agreement with OpenAI.

Last year, a Pew Research study based on data from 900 adult users in the USA found that Google AI Overviews reduced referrals to publisher websites by almost half compared with the traditional display of links. The source also points out that Google had moved away from the "10 blue links" principle in other ways even before introducing AI Overviews.