AI and the Problem of Knowledge Collapse

Understand

While artificial intelligence has the potential to process vast amounts of data, generate new insights, and unlock greater productivity, its widespread adoption may entail unforeseen consequences.

• We identify conditions under which AI, by reducing the cost of access to certain modes of knowledge, can paradoxically harm public understanding.
• While large language models are trained on vast amounts of diverse data, they naturally generate output towards the 'center' of the distribution.
• This is generally useful, but widespread reliance on recursive AI systems could lead to a process we define as "knowledge collapse", and argue this could harm innovation and the richness of human understanding and culture.