Generative Inbreeding And Its Risk To Human Culture (1)
Generative AI and Inbreeding
- Inbreeding in biology refers to the reproduction between genetically similar members, leading to health issues in offspring.
- Generative AI faces a similar issue, termed "Generative Inbreeding."
- First-generation AI models were trained on a vast array of human artifacts, representing our cultural essence.
- The internet is now seeing an influx of AI-generated content, which newer AI systems might train on.
- This leads to AI training on "copies of copies" of human culture, distorting the original essence.
At some point humanity will run out of data to feed AI. Some experts see this happening by 2026. Absent organic data, AI will be forced to train on synthetic data, which can be filled with bias, both human and computer created. So while generative inbreeding is a problem now, it becomes a Defcon 1 issue in as little as a few years.
Generative Inbreeding Consequences
- Potential degradation of gen AI systems, reducing their ability to represent human culture accurately.
- Distortion of human culture as AI introduces "deformities" that don't represent our collective sensibilities.
- Studies suggest that generative inbreeding could lead to "model collapse" due to "data poisoning."
- As AI-generated data increases in training sets, the quality of generative models could decrease.
- AI-generated content could soon overshadow human-created content due to copyright issues.
Potential Solutions
- AI systems designed to distinguish between human and AI-generated content.
- OpenAI tried this with an "AI classifier," but it was discontinued due to inaccuracy.
- Watermarking AI-generated content.
- Helps in identifying fake documents and misinformation.
- The White House is advocating for watermarking solutions.
Insights: The Future of AI and Culture
- Generative AI systems are trained to emulate past styles and content, introducing a backward-looking bias.
- "...gen AI systems are explicitly trained to emulate the style and content of the past..."
- Human creators bring personal inspiration and experiences, while AI lacks this personal touch.
- Generative inbreeding could lead to a culture influenced more by AI than human creativity.
- "...we could face a future where our culture is stifled by an invisible force pulling towards the past combined with āgenetic deformitiesā that donāt faithfully represent the creative thoughts, feelings and insights of humanity."
- Technical and policy protections are crucial to ensure human culture isn't overshadowed by AI influences.
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