Large Language Models such as chatGPT have to date relied on free, mainly text based, date to train and deliver useful results.
Their usefulness depends on the amount of data they have access to..... the more data they can feed off, the more accurate their results, and the more useful this is to consumers.
But we have a problem... according to a recent article in nature, easily accessible (read 'free') data could run out in as little as four years time. This is mainly because the sheer pace of feeding has increased as more and more people have started relying on Large Language Models.
And to add to the problem, publishers are increasingly looking for ways to stop AI feeding on their material, by putting it behind paywalls.
Incoming postmodern regression loop....?
One potential outcome of this is that AI starts to generate its own new data, and then teaching itself from this... I love this idea, a postmodern regression loop in which the tiniest inaccuracies end up becoming amplified.
This is a possibility.... I mean it's perfectly possible that AI can generate fake knowledge that is entirely believable by MOST humans...actually this is ALREADY happening, although ATM fake news seems to require actual humans to amplify said news into significance, but I can see that process going fully auto.
The consequence of this could be truly horrible and AI tweaks and twists based on what it knows people want to hear, bending the left left and the right right and pulling everyone's views apart, in more ways than one.
I have a feeling this will be for the plebs.... just let them feed on AI generate bullshit, in the same way education babysits the majority and keeps them stupid.
And for the elite...
However while the above may just be the fate of lesser models (and amusing to boot) it's more likely that successful future AI models are going to have to pay to access quality data, or private data which isn't yet stored online, there are huge volumes of that.
These will get more accurate, more efficient, more expert at co-creating useful knowledge with the human experts who generate it.
But that ain't gonna be cheap. These useful, actual factual AI models are probably gonna cost a fortune, and only be accessible to the relatively well off, if we're lucky to top 20%, if not a much smaller percentage of the population.
It's probably just gonna be of that trend towards polarisation!