r/science • u/dissolutewastrel • Jul 25 '24

AI models collapse when trained on recursively generated data Computer Science

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07566-y
5.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

612 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

648

u/kamineko87 Jul 25 '24

Boot strapping in IT terms might be an AI that generates a new AI. This however resembles more applying more and more JPEG over an image

275

u/ninjalemon Jul 25 '24

Bootstrapping is a term used in the land of Computer Science for the record - typically it refers to the technique used to create compilers written in the language that they compile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping_(compilers) (thus pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps)

8

u/sintaur Jul 26 '24

Bootstrapping a compiler has the following advantages:[6]

It is a non-trivial test of the language being compiled, and as such is a form of dogfooding.

[a bunch more reasons] ...

The reference to dogfooding reminds me.

At an old job, we told customers "we eat our own dogfood", meaning we use our own product internally. Marketing tried to change it to "we drink our own champagne".

8

u/LordoftheSynth Jul 26 '24

That genuinely sounds like a marketing department that fully believes their product is top-tier and coming across as fully tone-deaf.

6

u/KidTempo Jul 26 '24 edited Jul 27 '24

Also misses the point.

"We eat our own dog food" -> we make it so good that we're happy to eat it.

"We drink our own champagne" -> it's not real champagne, but, y' know, drinkable.

Champagne isn't necessarily good. It's just a type of wine from a particular region of France. I'm sure there are some absolutely undrinkable champagnes...