Reddit cofounder Ohanian says building social media apps is “not cool anymore”
Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of Reddit, told WIRED senior correspondent Lauren Goode at the inaugural WIRED World Fair that building social media apps is “not cool anymore” and that so much of the internet has been compromised. He wants to work out what comes next for user-generated content (UGC). His own bet: “I'm expecting some better version of the group chat to be that new version of UGC.”
WIRED frames Ohanian as having a complicated relationship with the internet. He resigned from Reddit in 2020, following the killing of George Floyd, to make room for a Black board member and to pressure the company to reform its content moderation policies; the site had been notorious for hosting violent and harmful rhetoric. He said he recently learned that someone with a Reddit tattoo, once a sign of the site's success to Ohanian, had since covered it up. His reaction: “I don’t blame him.” He now runs the venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, which has over $1.3 billion in assets under management. He focuses on sports, where he finds real-life communities in the age of AI slop and a “manipulated” internet.
Ohanian is a proponent of the “Dead Internet Theory”, the idea that a lot of online activity and content is being generated by bots. WIRED says large language models have turbocharged this, with AI agents outrunning human users. Ohanian said the internet he grew up on was built for humans first, and that user interfaces and experiences are going to go away, “because more of the internet is going to get created for these agents to use, [rather] than for people.”
Generative AI has been lucrative for sites like Reddit, which has licensed its vast archive of human conversations to companies including Google and OpenAI to train AI models. “Platforms like ours became very, very valuable to LLMs,” Ohanian said. But WIRED notes the technology has also undermined the business: Reddit shares plunged 29 percent last week after the platform warned that Google’s AI-powered search was hurting referral traffic. Ohanian also worries that the commercialisation of these conversations means they are full of “bullshit.” In his words: “The internet has gotten so manipulated because it is so incredibly valuable to do so.”
Reddit recently said it would require users to sign in, to fight third-party scraping and keep up user engagement. Ohanian declined to say whether he agrees with the move, but said “there has to be provable humanity on the internet without being creepy.”
An early Anthropic investor, Ohanian is nonetheless optimistic about the potential benefits of AI, and is especially excited about medical breakthroughs. He added a warning: “There is still a very real chance that this technology can cause a lot of harm for sure,” and said we have to be sober about how we are building and what we are doing, while still seeing many things that can get demonstrably better.
Key facts
- Ohanian told WIRED that building social media apps is “not cool anymore” and that he expects a better version of the group chat to be the new form of UGC.
- He argues that more of the internet will be built for AI agents than for people, and that user interfaces and experiences will go away.
- Reddit has licensed its archive of human conversations to companies including Google and OpenAI; WIRED reports its shares fell 29 percent last week after it warned Google's AI-powered search was hurting referral traffic.
- Reddit recently said it would require users to sign in to fight third-party scraping; Ohanian declined to say whether he agrees, but called for “provable humanity on the internet without being creepy.”
- Ohanian runs Seven Seven Six, a venture firm with over $1.3 billion in assets under management, and is an early Anthropic investor who remains optimistic about AI, especially medical breakthroughs.
Why it matters
This is a view from inside the history of social media. A cofounder of Reddit says the app-building era has lost its shine and that the next form of user-generated content may be a better group chat. His argument links two pressures: bots and AI agents are crowding out human users, and AI search is cutting the traffic that feeds platforms like Reddit. WIRED ties the second point to a 29 percent share drop at Reddit last week. There is no new product or research here; the value is in how he frames the problem.
Who it affects
Social platforms that depend on user-generated content and on referral traffic from search, Reddit most directly. It also touches people building consumer apps, since Ohanian expects interfaces and experiences to give way to a web made for agents. Ordinary users are affected by the push for sign-in requirements and for ways to show a real person is behind an account.
How to use it
There is nothing to install or adopt. The practical takeaway is a direction of thought: Ohanian expects a better version of the group chat to be the new form of UGC, and he argues the internet will increasingly be created for agents rather than people. The source does not say what that better group chat would be, name any product, or say that Ohanian is building or funding one.
How solid is it
This is a WIRED write-up of an on-stage conversation, and the quotes are Ohanian's own words. The Reddit facts (the 29 percent drop, the licensing deals with Google and OpenAI, the sign-in plan) are stated by WIRED in its own voice. The predictions about group chats and agent-built internet are his opinion, not findings. The article gives no calendar date for the session, no Reddit share price and no terms for the licensing deals.
Risks and caveats
Ohanian's forecasts are personal views with no data behind them in the piece. He declined to say whether he agrees with Reddit's sign-in requirement, so his stance on that is unknown. He voices both optimism and concern: he sees a very real chance that AI can cause a lot of harm, and he worries that commercialised conversations are full of “bullshit.” The 29 percent drop is dated only as “last week”.
“I'm expecting some better version of the group chat to be that new version of UGC”
— Alexis Ohanian, Reddit cofounder, to WIRED's Lauren Goode at the inaugural WIRED World Fair