Reddit said on July 6 that it is using AI to detect and remove stealth marketing posts designed to influence responses from chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini.

The social media company said better automated systems caught 25,000 spam posts and comments a day in the first quarter and reduced user exposure by 20% from a year earlier.

Reddit has content deals with OpenAI and Alphabet’s Google, making its forums a source for AI responses and a target for marketers trying to seed recommendations that chatbots may later cite.

In plain terms, generative engine optimization, or GEO, is structuring content so AI systems can extract, summarize, and cite it, rather than mainly trying to improve rankings through classic search engine optimization.

A recent Cornell Tech study found that user-generated content can manipulate results from AI research tools.

GEO is also becoming a commercial category, with vendors that track mentions in AI answers and help brands shape how large language models portray them.

Undisclosed paid seeding could also raise regulatory risk in the US.

The Federal Trade Commission said in guidance that marketers and intermediaries may be liable if they fail to disclose material connections behind endorsements on social platforms.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg