What is Model Collapse?
In the latest video podcast from Charlotte Content Marketing, Founder Andrew Rusnak discusses the concept of model collapse.
This is what may occur when large language models (LLMs, also commonly referred to simply as “AI”) end up training on data from other LLMs.
What We See Right Now
In this video, Andrew discusses a story that came out in Fast Company in early December 2023.
In a nutshell, an X user asked X’s Grok LLM to write some malicious code. When Grok replied that it was unable to do so, the user asked if there were any policies that prevented the writing of such code.
What’s interesting is that Grok then replied that it was against OpenAI’s policies to comply, and herein lies the problem: Grok is not an OpenAI product. It is an X product. ChatGPT is an OpenAI product and a competiting LLM.
If AI continues to train on content generated by AI, this creates a feedback loop that can degrade the integrity of data and information over time.
The reason this presents a problem is that Grok should not respond as representing itself as an OpenAI product, but it did.
This has led to the conclusion that Grok was trained on/scraped data from information sources on the Internet that contained output from ChatGPT, which is OpenAI’s product.
This is particularly surprising considering there’s a lot of AI-generated content clogging up the Internet now, but it presents a challenge since AI receives training on that very same data.
LLMs Collapsing in on Themselves
Aside from the humorous gaff taking place here, it signals a bigger potential problem: Model collapse. We actually wrote about this back in January 2023. At that time, we put forth the idea that model collapse (we didn’t phrase it that way) was a very real possibility and could harm data integrity on the Internet.
Essentially, if enough AI-generated content gets out there and LLMs continue to suck it up and incorporate it into their training, you have a situation where a feedback loop develops (i.e. Bots talking to bots). This has the potential to degrade the quality and integrity of data as AI-generated content is prone to errors. As these errors get picked up and incorporated into more LLM training, they get repeated and compounded.
AI-generated content has its purpose and uses, but relying on it without editing or reviewing its output can be dangerous to your brand, customers, content marketing, and SEO efforts.
What is AI?
While we can debate all day about whether products like ChatGPT or Grok are actually artificial intelligence or not, it’s clear that model collapse poses a danger to the future of content marketing if you are only relying on products like ChatGPT.
Aside from the fact that the output of LLMs is about as dry and uncharismatic as it gets, if you aren’t reviewing and editing the output from these products, you may set your business up for problems. On top of that, this is to say nothing about the damage bad data can do to your SEO.
Entities will play larger roles in content marketing moving forward as our goal shifts to tell large LLMs about your brand and its products and services.
Looking Ahead & What Our Content Marketing Agency is Doing About Things
We’re going to talk more about this in 2024, but content marketing has changed and is changing with the introduction of things like Google’s Search Generative Experience and Bing’s use of ChatGPT.
We aren’t ready to say that the famous 10 blue links are going away, but consumers are going to change search habits and long-tail, detailed searches will become more popular.
This means that your content strategy needs to anticipate the questions people will ask in searches and answer them in your content.
Entity Marketing is Going to Play a Much Larger Role Going Forward
In addition, entities will play much larger roles in getting found on the web. This is where digital PR is going to become crucial as you want your name associated with your brand, and you want your brand cited in relevant sources all across the web.
The goal with entity marketing is to let search engines as well as LLMs “learn” about you and your brand and how you, your products, your industry, your company, your service area, your achievements, and pretty much everything about you all tie in together.
Contact Charlotte Content Marketing to Learn How to Safeguard Your Content Strategy
If you’re concerned about the potential for AI-generated content making its way into your content strategy, contact Charlotte Content Marketing. We provide content marketing services to businesses in the Charlotte, NC area as well as across the Carolinas and the world.
Use our contact form to reach out online, or call us at (704) 323-6762 today!
