LLM as a Broken Telephone: Iterative Generation Distorts Information

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Mohamed, Amr, Geng, Mingmeng, Vazirgiannis, Michalis, Shang, Guokan
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Mohamed, Amr
Geng, Mingmeng
Vazirgiannis, Michalis
Shang, Guokan
author_facet Mohamed, Amr
Geng, Mingmeng
Vazirgiannis, Michalis
Shang, Guokan
contents As large language models are increasingly responsible for online content, concerns arise about the impact of repeatedly processing their own outputs. Inspired by the "broken telephone" effect in chained human communication, this study investigates whether LLMs similarly distort information through iterative generation. Through translation-based experiments, we find that distortion accumulates over time, influenced by language choice and chain complexity. While degradation is inevitable, it can be mitigated through strategic prompting techniques. These findings contribute to discussions on the long-term effects of AI-mediated information propagation, raising important questions about the reliability of LLM-generated content in iterative workflows.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_20258
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle LLM as a Broken Telephone: Iterative Generation Distorts Information
Mohamed, Amr
Geng, Mingmeng
Vazirgiannis, Michalis
Shang, Guokan
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
As large language models are increasingly responsible for online content, concerns arise about the impact of repeatedly processing their own outputs. Inspired by the "broken telephone" effect in chained human communication, this study investigates whether LLMs similarly distort information through iterative generation. Through translation-based experiments, we find that distortion accumulates over time, influenced by language choice and chain complexity. While degradation is inevitable, it can be mitigated through strategic prompting techniques. These findings contribute to discussions on the long-term effects of AI-mediated information propagation, raising important questions about the reliability of LLM-generated content in iterative workflows.
title LLM as a Broken Telephone: Iterative Generation Distorts Information
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.20258