San Francisco, Feb 12 (IANS): Online discussion forum Reddit believes that artificial intelligence (AI)-powered conversational chatbots, such as ChatGPT and Bard, will not replace human connection, but instead "complement" it.

"AI chatbot technologies are still new and something we're exploring and keeping our eyes on," Reddit spokesperson Nick Singer told the Verge.

"Though, there will always be a need for genuine community and human connection, which can be aided by tools like this. We see chatbots being used in fun and innovative ways to complement community and human connection -- not replace it," Singer added.

The popularity of conversational AI technologies, like ChatGPT, have surged because of the fact that engaging with them can be entertaining.

However, AI-assisted search has a number of drawbacks, one of which is the potential to present inaccuracies as fact, as Bard did in official Google marketing materials.

On the other hand, Reddit is frequently trusted since users are more likely to upvote positive content and downvote negative content.

The report further mentioned that Reddit is also exploring AI chatbot technologies, so users might soon be talking with the online discussion forum to find stuff on the platform.

Meanwhile, the online discussion forum on Friday confirmed that its systems were hacked as a result of a sophisticated and highly-targeted phishing attack.

After successfully obtaining a single employee's credentials, the attacker gained access to some internal documents, code, as well as some internal dashboards and business systems.