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Key Takeaways Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in a new interview that the company will “go heavy” on hiring new college graduates.
According to Huffman, these new grads have the advantage of being “AI native,” meaning they know how to work alongside AI tools.
His stance contrasts with wider fears that AI will wipe out entry-level, white-collar jobs.
As AI advances, leaders have spoken out about its ability to replace entry-level work in finance, technology and analytics. Now, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is flipping that dominant narrative. He argues that winning companies will be the ones that scoop up early-career talent instead of automating entry-level work.
Huffman said on a recent episode of the Sourcery with Molly O’Shea podcast that he wants to “go heavy” on hiring new graduates because he sees them as “AI native” workers who have an advantage over older hires. They learned to work alongside AI tools, making them especially productive.
“The kids coming out of college right now learned how to program with AI,” Huffman said. “They’re really good at it. It’s the old people like me… I don’t want to not write code anymore. The younger people don’t have that baggage, they just write with AI.”
Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit. (Photo by Greg Doherty/Variety via Getty Images)
Huffman’s “AI native” label reflects a belief that today’s new graduates grew up with generative AI, from ChatGPT to Midjourney, and instinctively use these tools in their work. In his view, this AI expertise makes them well-suited to work at a company like Reddit, which is embedding AI into products. For example, the company launched Reddit Answers a year ago to answer questions with an AI response based on what users are saying. Reddit is also selling its data to AI giants like Google and OpenAI.
Huffman said that top new graduates are rarely on the market for long — if Reddit doesn’t hire them right away, they are gone to other employers and may never be available again. He framed AI not as a headcount reducer, but as a force multiplier that lets engineers and other employees build products more quickly.
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