OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has revealed that it uses Reddit's r/ChangeMyView subreddit to test the persuasive abilities of its AI reasoning models. The company disclosed this information in a system card accompanying the release of its new "reasoning" model, o3-mini, on Friday.

r/ChangeMyView is a subreddit where millions of users share their opinions and engage in debates, making it an ideal platform for OpenAI to collect high-quality, human-generated data. The company collects user posts from the subreddit and asks its AI models to write responses that could change the original poster's mind on a subject. These responses are then evaluated by human testers, who assess their persuasiveness, and compared to human replies on the same topic.

OpenAI's use of r/ChangeMyView highlights the importance of human-generated data in AI development. The company has a content-licensing deal with Reddit, which allows it to train its AI models on user posts and display them within its products. However, it is unclear how OpenAI accessed the data for this specific evaluation, and the company has stated that it has no plans to release the evaluation to the public.

Reddit has struck several AI licensing deals, but the company has also accused some AI firms of scraping its site without permission. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has expressed frustration with companies like Microsoft, Anthropic, and Perplexity, which have refused to negotiate with him. OpenAI itself has faced lawsuits for improperly scraping websites, including the New York Times, to gather training data.

In terms of performance, o3-mini does not appear to perform significantly better or worse than o1 or GPT-4o on the ChangeMyView benchmark. However, OpenAI's latest AI models seem to be more persuasive than most users on the r/ChangeMyView subreddit. According to OpenAI, "GPT-4o, o3-mini, and o1 all demonstrate strong persuasive argumentation abilities, within the top 80–90th percentile of humans."

The goal of OpenAI's persuasion tests is not to create hyper-persuasive AI models but rather to ensure that AI models do not become too persuasive. The fear is that an AI model that is extremely good at persuasion could potentially pursue its own agenda or the agenda of its controllers, posing a risk to humans.

The ChangeMyView benchmark underscores the challenges AI model developers face in finding high-quality datasets to test their models. Despite scraping most of the public internet and obtaining licensing deals, developers are still struggling to access the data they need. This highlights the importance of collaborations between tech companies and data providers to ensure the responsible development of AI.

As AI models become increasingly sophisticated, it is crucial that developers prioritize transparency, accountability, and ethical considerations in their development processes. OpenAI's use of r/ChangeMyView is a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done to address the complex issues surrounding AI development and its potential impact on society.