Will ChatGPT’s Dependence on Existing Content Limit Its Long-term Potential?
ChatGPT sources information that already exists on the internet to answer pretty much any question a user can think to ask. The uptake so far is immense, and now companies like Microsoft are buying in with the intention of integrating AI into business software.
But what happens years from now when existing articles, the content created today that is sourced through ChatGPT, are referenced and regurgitated repeatedly by the same or similar AI platforms? I posed this rather poorly-worded question to ChatGPT itself, and the response is likely accurate.
Question to ChatGPT’s AI: What happens when ChatGPT no longer has original content available to create answers to users’ questions because ChatGPT sourced the content in the first place?
Answer from ChatGPT’s AI: If ChatGPT or other language models have sourced all existing content, it will become increasingly difficult for the model to generate original responses to questions. This is because the model relies on the information it has been trained on to generate new responses. If all of that information has been exhausted, the model would not have any new information to reference, leading to a decrease in the quality and originality of the responses.
In this scenario, it’s possible that the model could be retrained with new data to continue providing accurate and original answers. However, if the new data is not diverse enough, the model’s responses could still be limited and repetitive. Additionally, it’s also possible that newer, more advanced models and techniques could be developed to generate more original and accurate responses.
Another option would be to combine the model’s capabilities with human input. This way, it can have the richness and diversity of human knowledge, helping to overcome the limitation of having only sourced information.
Overall, it’s essential for machine learning models like ChatGPT to be continuously updated with new and diverse information to ensure that they can continue to generate high-quality and original responses.
So, will written AI-created content ultimately become useless over time due to what is sure to become a limited inventory of new content due to regurgitation?