Marketers Flood Reddit With AI Posts to Manipulate Chatbot Answers

A 2025 study by AI-detection firm Originality.ai estimated that approximately 15 percent of analyzed Reddit posts were 'likely AI-generated,' up from about 13 percent in 2024. While a single-firm detection study with methodological caveats, it became a widely cited data point in the 'dead internet' discourse about Reddit being increasingly populated by machine-written content.

The most concrete documented case emerged in early June 2026, when 404 Media reported that peptide and hormone-replacement-therapy companies were surreptitiously spamming Reddit, particularly r/Biohackers, to get their product mentions scraped and surfaced by AI chatbots. The practice is known as Answer Engine Optimization, an extension of search engine optimization aimed at the source material that large language models scrape.

Moderators of r/Biohackers placed a moratorium on new posts about peptides and HRT, citing an explosion of peptide interest and AI usage flooding the subreddit and concern that companies were using it for Answer Engine Optimization. Coverage noted this poses health-and-safety risks because consumers asking an AI assistant about peptide dosing or vendor legitimacy may unknowingly receive answers shaped by the vendors themselves.

These episodes feed a broader 'dead internet' narrative and are especially consequential because Reddit content is now heavily cited by AI search engines and chatbots, so a single manipulated thread can influence many downstream AI answers.