The curious case of Elias Thorne – and what he tells us about AI inbreeding

Live updates

1. 1h ago

   AI Chatbots Frequently Generate Stories About Elias Thorne

   AI chatbots repeatedly create stories featuring a character named Elias Thorne. He is typically portrayed as a lighthouse keeper. This pattern is linked to recycled training data and safety training.

   What's confirmed:

   • AI chatbots frequently generate stories featuring a character named Elias Thorne.
   • Elias Thorne is often portrayed as a lighthouse keeper.
   • The repetition of this character is linked to recycled training data and AI safety training.

   Still unconfirmed:

   • A small set of words appear in 88% of 20,000 analyzed stories.
   • 88% of AI-generated stories feature a lighthouse keeper named Elias Thorne.
   confidence 90%
2. 4d ago

   Cornell Researchers Link Elias Thorne AI Pattern to Shared Training Data

   AI chatbots frequently generate stories featuring a character named Elias Thorne. Researchers from Cornell University found that a small set of words appear in 88% of 20,000 analyzed stories. This repetition is linked to shared upstream data and alignment pipelines.

   What's confirmed:

   • Cornell researchers Sil Hamilton and David Mimno analyzed 20,000 stories from ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
   • Eleven words, including Elias and lighthouse keeper, appeared in 88% of the generated stories.
   • The pattern is traced to the WildChat dataset, which contains 1,000,000 conversations derived from GPT-3.5.
   • The WildChat dataset contains 166 conversations featuring the Elias lighthouse motif.
   • Software engineer Daniel May first flagged the trend via Google Trends.

   Still unconfirmed:

   • The appearance of Elias Thorne may be a warning that generative AI is facing model collapse.
   • The character has appeared in Amazon listings and YouTube content, with some flagged for misinformation.
   confidence 90%