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from the avoiding-the-ouroboros-of-LLM-slop dept.
Blogger Matt Webb point out that nations have begun to need a strategic fact reserve, in light of the problem arising from LLMs and other AI models starting to consume and re-process the slop which they themselves have produced.
The future needs trusted, uncontaminated, complete training data.
From the point of view of national interests, each country (or each trading bloc) will need its own training data, as a reserve, and a hedge against the interests of others.
Probably the best way to start is to take a snapshot of the internet and keep it somewhere really safe. We can sift through it later; the world's data will never be more available or less contaminated than it is today. Like when GitHub stored all public code in an Arctic vault (02/02/2020): a very-long-term archival facility 250 meters deep in the permafrost of an Arctic mountain. Or the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
But actually I think this is a job for librarians and archivists.
What we need is a long-term national programme to slowly, carefully accept digital data into a read-only archive. We need the expertise of librarians, archivists and museums in the careful and deliberate process of acquisition and accessioning (PDF).
(Look and if this is an excuse for governments to funnel money to the cultural sector then so much the better.)
It should start today.
Already, AI slop is filling the WWW and starting to drown out legitimate, authoritative sources through sheer volume.
Previously
(2025) Meta's AI Profiles Are Already Polluting Instagram and Facebook With Slop
(2024) Thousands Turned Out For Nonexistent Halloween Parade Promoted By AI Listing
(2024) Annoyed Redditors Tanking Google Search Results Illustrates Perils of AI Scrapers
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday January 21 2025, @11:48AM (6 children)
This fundamentally misunderstands the motives and determination of those that want to live in a fact-free environment.
1. If you establish a location where facts are being stored for the world to access, and the world knows where it is, then those opposed to those facts because they are inconvenient for their ideology will make it a target for some kind of violent action and destroy it. Ditto if you distribute it.
2. To maintain any such effort, you need funding. The people with enough money to fund it effectively for the long term are benefiting from ignorance, so they won't want to.
3. No matter how reliable your sources for any kind of information, it is very easy for somebody to come along and say "lol WRONG!"
As for librarians and archivists, I won't be surprised in the least if they are declared obsolete [youtube.com].
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday January 21 2025, @01:21PM (2 children)
FTFY - not all nations have the same propensity of living in alt-realities... ummmm... yet.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday January 21 2025, @01:34PM
There's lots of fact-free stuff happening in China, Russia, Europe, etc too. It's not just a USAian thing.
Facts are inconvenient to incompetent but powerful people. Therefor, these incompetent-but-powerful people conclude, they must be destroyed at all costs.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 21 2025, @05:18PM
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Wednesday January 22 2025, @03:11AM (2 children)
Destruction is actually relatively innocuous since one can always copy or recreate it. Rather they would seek to control it. Who controls the past controls the future.
It's an attack surface for society.
And the premise is junk. It's not that hard to find good sources.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday January 22 2025, @01:19PM (1 child)
Sure, I was assuming that "fact" had some kind of definition independent of politics. Stuff like "An atom of uranium has 92 protons", which could very easily be lost if Internet scrapers and LLMs are stupid enough and humans are stupid enough to believe them.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 22 2025, @06:36PM
These aren't facts, they're strategic facts and inherently political as a result.