Like any company, Reddit reports quarterly earnings, and its CEO, Steve Huffman, addresses investors during those reports. This quarter, Huffman took the opportunity to voice concerns and criticisms about Google’s AI Overviews feature, which automatically summarizes search results on most user queries.

First, there was a letter to investors, wherein Huffman outlined Reddit’s value proposition and general strategic direction amid the proliferation of AI tools.

He wrote:

As the internet becomes flooded with synthetic content, people are craving real human perspective. We are the antidote to an automated web. AI compresses the internet into summaries. Reddit delivers the opposite: deep discussions, passionate debates, and lived experiences. People don’t want a summary of Reddit; they want Reddit.

The letter also said:

As AI makes information more abundant, the challenge is no longer finding content—it’s finding context, personal opinion, and first-hand accounts. Everything online feels flat, polished, generated, or sponsored, so consumers are overwhelmed and increasingly skeptical. We’ve never had more information, but we’ve never trusted it less.

In comments around the earnings report, Huffman added:

What we see is, 10 blue links has driven tremendous value and growth to the broader ecosystem… from where we sit, AI Overviews has yet to make a similar level of positive impact, and I think that’s consistent across the broader landscape, right? As businesses, publishers, retailers, we’re still looking for that win-win.

Licensing Deal and Industry Tensions

To add context to these statements, Reddit has long held a relatively lucrative ($60 million) licensing deal with Google, but Reddit is considering ending that deal, according to a Wall Street Journal report from earlier this month. The report also noted that several prominent publishers are considering similarly cutting ties with Google, including The Economist, Reuters, Politico, and USA Today. Reddit also maintains a separate deal with OpenAI.

Huffman’s frustration has quantitative backing. A Pew Research study examining data from 900 US adults found that Google’s AI Overviews cut referrals to publisher sites by almost half compared to the traditional “10 blue links” approach Huffman referenced. It is worth noting, however, that Google had already diverged significantly from the pure 10-blue-links model through other features well before AI Overviews arrived.