The Ouroboros Effect: AI Optimization for AI Consumption
The Ouroboros is the ancient symbol of a snake eating its own tail. It is the perfect metaphor for the current state of the web. AI generates content -> Webmasters publish it -> AI scrapes it to train -> AI generates more content.
Model Collapse
Researchers warn of Model Collapse. If models train on their own output, the variance (creativity) of the model degrades. It becomes an echo chamber of “average” probability.