Knowledge Collapse

Knowledge collapse is the paradox where increasing access to certain types of knowledge actually harms understanding.

If you visualize public knowledge as a collection of viewpoints that fit a normal distribution, the “collapse” is when the head and the tail drop off and the center is amplified.

A recent paper found that a “discount on AI-generated content generates public beliefs 2.3 times further from the truth.” While the paper centers on LLMs, there could be many explanations for the phenomenon.

See also:

• Another explanation is that convenience is king and information that shapes ones views will tend to follow what’s convenient to access
• AI puts a higher premium on unique knowledge

Links to this note

• Getting Ready for AI

  The other day I noticed a tweet from Justin Duke which outlined a plan to get his company’s codebase ready for Devin—a programming focused generative AI product. While many are skeptical about AI taking over coding tasks, progress happening quickly and it seems likely that these tools will help software engineers, though maybe not replace the job outright).

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  What if the entire services industry merges with SaaS when it becomes possible to deliver a service with artificial intelligence?