Position: Model Collapse Does Not Mean What You Think
Fuente:
arXiv
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| Hauptverfasser: | , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866915202822307840 |
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| author | Schaeffer, Rylan Kazdan, Joshua Arulandu, Alvan Caleb Koyejo, Sanmi |
| author_facet | Schaeffer, Rylan Kazdan, Joshua Arulandu, Alvan Caleb Koyejo, Sanmi |
| contents | The proliferation of AI-generated content online has fueled concerns over \emph{model collapse}, a degradation in future generative models' performance when trained on synthetic data generated by earlier models. Industry leaders, premier research journals and popular science publications alike have prophesied catastrophic societal consequences stemming from model collapse. In this position piece, we contend this widespread narrative fundamentally misunderstands the scientific evidence. We highlight that research on model collapse actually encompasses eight distinct and at times conflicting definitions of model collapse, and argue that inconsistent terminology within and between papers has hindered building a comprehensive understanding of model collapse. To assess how significantly different interpretations of model collapse threaten future generative models, we posit what we believe are realistic conditions for studying model collapse and then conduct a rigorous assessment of the literature's methodologies through this lens. While we leave room for reasonable disagreement, our analysis of research studies, weighted by how faithfully each study matches real-world conditions, leads us to conclude that certain predicted claims of model collapse rely on assumptions and conditions that poorly match real-world conditions, and in fact several prominent collapse scenarios are readily avoidable. Altogether, this position paper argues that model collapse has been warped from a nuanced multifaceted consideration into an oversimplified threat, and that the evidence suggests specific harms more likely under society's current trajectory have received disproportionately less attention. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_03150 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Position: Model Collapse Does Not Mean What You Think Schaeffer, Rylan Kazdan, Joshua Arulandu, Alvan Caleb Koyejo, Sanmi Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Computers and Society The proliferation of AI-generated content online has fueled concerns over \emph{model collapse}, a degradation in future generative models' performance when trained on synthetic data generated by earlier models. Industry leaders, premier research journals and popular science publications alike have prophesied catastrophic societal consequences stemming from model collapse. In this position piece, we contend this widespread narrative fundamentally misunderstands the scientific evidence. We highlight that research on model collapse actually encompasses eight distinct and at times conflicting definitions of model collapse, and argue that inconsistent terminology within and between papers has hindered building a comprehensive understanding of model collapse. To assess how significantly different interpretations of model collapse threaten future generative models, we posit what we believe are realistic conditions for studying model collapse and then conduct a rigorous assessment of the literature's methodologies through this lens. While we leave room for reasonable disagreement, our analysis of research studies, weighted by how faithfully each study matches real-world conditions, leads us to conclude that certain predicted claims of model collapse rely on assumptions and conditions that poorly match real-world conditions, and in fact several prominent collapse scenarios are readily avoidable. Altogether, this position paper argues that model collapse has been warped from a nuanced multifaceted consideration into an oversimplified threat, and that the evidence suggests specific harms more likely under society's current trajectory have received disproportionately less attention. |
| title | Position: Model Collapse Does Not Mean What You Think |
| topic | Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Computers and Society |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.03150 |