Reddit’s Role in the Future of the Internet

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[00:00:18] Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Tuesday, October 29th. I'm Charlotte Gartenberg for The Wall Street Journal.

[00:00:25] The digital revolution in healthcare was supposed to change the patient experience. So far, though, many still run into problems accessing and managing their electronic records.

[00:00:35] But tech can help patients make sense of their healthcare data. We'll tell you how.

[00:00:40] And then, Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman has said that Reddit is the most human place on the Internet.

[00:00:47] At WSJ Tech Live last week, he talked about the use of Reddit data to train artificial intelligence models and how he sees the platform's role in the future of the Internet.

[00:00:57] We'll have highlights from his conversation with our senior personal tech columnist, Joanna Stern.

[00:01:06] But first, do you have difficulty accessing your medical records or looking at records across different hospitals or doctor's offices?

[00:01:15] Despite legislation and tech advances, it's still not that easy for patients to access their medical records or run their care via patient portals and mobile apps, all while protecting their privacy.

[00:01:26] But there are ways to manage your records and help keep your data safe.

[00:01:30] Zoe Thomas spoke with Laura Landro, who wrote about this for The Wall Street Journal. Here's their conversation.

[00:01:36] Let's start with the big picture. What steps is the government taking to help patients increase access to their records?

[00:01:43] Well, the most important thing that they did was a big new legislation, 21st Century Cures Act, and it requires healthcare organizations to give patients full access to their health records.

[00:01:55] And it prohibits any effort to block such access.

[00:01:59] So the federal government is really making it much easier by working with all the different stakeholders to find ways that there's a framework, a trusted exchange framework, a common agreement that allows different healthcare systems who ordinarily wouldn't share data and might not even be able to because of technical specifications.

[00:02:19] They would now be able to share data among each other about their patients at the patient's request and with the patient's consent.

[00:02:28] Some doctors' offices or clinics offer access to medical records through patient portals.

[00:02:34] How significant are these in terms of increasing access?

[00:02:37] It's been a really big deal.

[00:02:39] If you get your healthcare through any system that has electronic medical records, and the majority of them do now, there may be the occasional small doctor's practice that doesn't, but if you're getting your care through a system that has electronic medical records, part of those records include a patient portal that gives you access to different kinds of data that's in your record already and is added as you continue to get care.

[00:03:06] What if your medical records are just all over the place?

[00:03:09] Many of us have been to multiple doctors or clinics or hospitals that don't all use the same portals.

[00:03:15] So what can listeners do to bring all that information together?

[00:03:17] The good news is if you're using a smartphone, you actually have the ability, thanks to this technology called application programming interfaces, and that enables you to download information from your patient portal to your device

[00:03:34] and to sort of device will give you good picture, readable and printable of what your information looks like.

[00:03:44] Laura, we're talking about making access to this data easier, but folks don't want to do is make it easier for, say, hackers to get their data.

[00:03:52] So what can listeners do to protect their medical records from cyber breaches?

[00:03:57] That's actually one of the scariest things going on right now, and I'm sure many people have already gotten that email or letter from somebody saying,

[00:04:04] well, we're afraid to say there's been a data leak and your medical records have all been compromised.

[00:04:09] It's very important to do things like change your passwords.

[00:04:13] When the Federal Health Information Technology Office actually remembers, you know, these things are happening all the time.

[00:04:18] So they have a few tips like use strong passwords, update them often, only use these trusted apps and websites.

[00:04:26] And you can also install remote wiping on mobile devices if you want to permanently delete data on a lost or stolen device.

[00:04:33] All the things you would do if you were protecting your phone and your personal data anyway.

[00:04:38] And, you know, there are some commercial identity theft protection services.

[00:04:41] So there's lots of things you can do.

[00:04:43] But can you really protect yourself against a massive cyber attack?

[00:04:46] Probably not.

[00:04:47] I would do things like think twice before giving out your social security number to your doctor's office.

[00:04:52] They don't usually need it.

[00:04:54] And if you tell them I don't want to give it to you, they won't insist most of the time.

[00:04:57] That was Zoe Thomas speaking with Laura Landro, who wrote about this for The Wall Street Journal.

[00:05:02] Coming up, how does social media platform Reddit fit into the AI world?

[00:05:07] We'll find out after the break.

[00:05:42] Social media platform Reddit is known for its user-led communities called subreddits.

[00:05:54] That are dedicated to a range of topics.

[00:05:57] Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman says it's communities and conversation.

[00:06:02] The platform has tens of millions of daily users.

[00:06:06] Reddit data is now being used to train AI systems.

[00:06:10] So what does that mean for its future?

[00:06:12] Speaking at WSJ Tech Live last week, Huffman didn't seem worried about the humanity of the platform.

[00:06:18] Here are highlights from his conversation with our senior personal tech columnist, Joanna Stern.

[00:06:23] I want to talk about three different topics today.

[00:06:26] They all start with A.

[00:06:27] We're going to talk about answers, AI, and ambitions.

[00:06:30] Great.

[00:06:30] And I'm going to start on answers because I use Reddit directly.

[00:06:34] I use Google to get to Reddit.

[00:06:35] And I just find that more and more I'm relying on Reddit for search, for getting information.

[00:06:41] Your experience is not unique.

[00:06:43] Here's kind of a wild stat that I learned just a couple weeks ago.

[00:06:47] In the United States in 2024, Reddit is the sixth most searched word on Google.

[00:06:53] We're somewhere between news and maps.

[00:06:56] And so people are going to Google with the intention of ending up on Reddit.

[00:07:03] And I think what's happening is people know that Reddit has answers, advice, perspective on just about whatever you're looking for.

[00:07:13] So at this point, it does feel like we're married to Google.

[00:07:16] But at the end of the day, we're seeing more and more people learn that Reddit has just pretty much everything that you're looking for.

[00:07:25] Yeah, we can get in.

[00:07:26] Maybe it's like a little bit of a prenup there we can talk about in a little bit.

[00:07:30] But in terms of people are calling this new wave sort of search 3.0, right?

[00:07:35] The idea of sort of melding of social and search.

[00:07:38] Why do you think it is that Reddit has sort of seen this explosion in people coming for information?

[00:07:45] I think Reddit is communities and conversation.

[00:07:47] And we have communities for literally anything that you're into or going through.

[00:07:52] And so a lot of internet searchers, a significant portion of just general searches on the internet are questions.

[00:07:59] And so if you have questions, there's just a high likelihood that Reddit, where people have been talking about everything for almost two decades, has an answer or perspectives on whatever it is.

[00:08:12] And one of the interesting things that I've both kind of experienced as a user but also as somebody working on Reddit is we've seen how Reddit evolves with people's lives.

[00:08:24] What I was into 20 years ago, let's call it programming and video games.

[00:08:29] It's still on Reddit.

[00:08:30] But now what I interact with on Reddit is like parenting and San Francisco.

[00:08:36] And so Reddit is just really broad.

[00:08:38] But you've said before that Reddit is the most human place on the internet.

[00:08:42] That was your own quote.

[00:08:44] AI has come along now.

[00:08:46] And this idea that basically we're going to be invaded by all of this AI slop.

[00:08:50] And we're going to kind of be washed away in this text that is not really human.

[00:08:56] And part of that's a fear that will happen on Google, that we'll have all these AI search results.

[00:09:00] But if Reddit is the most human place on Earth, are you fearful that some of this AI slop might make its way to your platform?

[00:09:08] The AI has to come from somewhere.

[00:09:10] The source of artificial intelligence is actual intelligence.

[00:09:16] And that's what you find on Reddit.

[00:09:19] And indeed, the Reddit corpus is part of the training of the major foundation models.

[00:09:26] Again, that's because there's colloquial words about pretty much every topic, constantly up to date.

[00:09:36] But I think your observation is true, which is it does seem like there's a general lowering of quality on the internet.

[00:09:43] Because more and more content is written by AI.

[00:09:47] Which the paradox there is that I think it actually makes Reddit stand out more as the place where there's all of this human content.

[00:09:55] That ends up being used to train AI.

[00:09:58] And so there's, I think, an interesting connection there.

[00:10:02] But what people want is to hear from other people.

[00:10:04] And they want not just the answers and information from other people, but also that sense of belonging and connection and community that Reddit provides.

[00:10:15] Reddit is many, many years old now.

[00:10:18] And if you look far out, what is your biggest fear about either AI or this next wave of the internet?

[00:10:27] What is your fear?

[00:10:27] I don't, I think, have a kind of a fear-based lens of the world.

[00:10:35] I'm actually just very excited.

[00:10:37] I've had the privilege, the true privilege, of working on Reddit.

[00:10:42] And seeing every day how people behave when nobody's watching.

[00:10:51] And they are funnier and nicer and more supportive and kinder than I think we give the general population credit for.

[00:10:59] And I know this because I see people every single day just helping each other.

[00:11:04] A subreddit that's been really important to me over the years is stop drinking.

[00:11:07] I quit drinking five years ago.

[00:11:09] You can go to that subreddit today.

[00:11:11] And I guarantee on the front page you'll see somebody celebrating a milestone.

[00:11:16] Maybe 100 days, maybe a year, maybe five years.

[00:11:19] You'll see somebody thinking about drinking again.

[00:11:24] And you'll see everybody pulling them back.

[00:11:27] And you'll see somebody who literally just had the worst day of their life and is posting about it.

[00:11:34] And there will be hundreds of people telling that person that they have a new lease on life as soon as they decide to take it.

[00:11:42] And they're giving that advice for no other reason than it feels good to do so.

[00:11:47] Or that they want to be helpful.

[00:11:49] Because you don't get to take it with you.

[00:11:51] And I think that's what's really special.

[00:11:53] And seeing people do that makes me actually very excited about the future.

[00:11:57] And whatever small role that we can play in.

[00:12:00] Well, Steve, we've got to wrap up.

[00:12:02] Thank you so much.

[00:12:03] Hope you enjoyed.

[00:12:04] Thanks all.

[00:12:06] That was Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman speaking with our senior personal tech columnist, Joanna Stern.

[00:12:12] And that's it for Tech News Briefing.

[00:12:15] Today's show was produced by Julie Chang with supervising producer Catherine Millsop.

[00:12:19] I'm Charlotte Gartenberg for The Wall Street Journal.

[00:12:22] We'll be back this afternoon with TNB Tech Minute.

[00:12:24] Thanks for listening.