Reddit Answers will summarize conversations and posts on the site, letting users bypass traditional search engines. The tool was released on a limited basis Monday, with more users expected to gain access in the coming days and weeks.

It's more than just a step in Reddit's evolution as a public company. The launch of Reddit Answers is also an escalation of the AI search wars, which could upend the way people find information online. Many of Reddit's users, which numbered in excess of 97 million per day in the third quarter, regularly add "reddit" to their Google searches in order to find things on the platform. This tool gives them the option to bypass Google entirely.

Google, lately, has been the only place to get recent search results from Reddit, thanks to a reported $60 million deal.