The oldest example of written literature dates back to 3400 BC from ancient Mesopotamia. Text includes economic and administrative documents, forever etched into clay tablets.
Back in 2015 Google's then vice-president Vint Cerf warned that all digital information will eventually be wiped out due to tech upgrades, creating a digital black hole in the future. But technology will probably offer our future generations a way to recover history similarly to archaeologist today try to undercover the past by digging up tiny bits of our past. Pieces of old magnetic hard drives, bits of solid-state chips, or perhaps even listening to ancient human broadcasts that's found its way back to Earth (or Mars) after its bounced back from distant celestial objects.
But will they be able to trust what they find? Will they build a completely different version of history because of facts skewed over time? Especially with the amount of AI generated content we are already seeing on the horizon, compounded by the risk of new AI models being contaminated with existing AI generated content. Like a snake snacking on its own tail.
A simple experiment by the First Technology Digital genAI forum, ran a paragraph of text from Wikipedia through a leading LLM. They deliberately engineered a "rewrite this" prompt that will subtly alter a single fact in the paragraph during each iteration. Here's the result:
Original text:
"The causes of World War II included unresolved tensions in the aftermath of World War I and the rises of fascism in Europe and militarism in Japan, and it was preceded by events including the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Spanish Civil War, outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and German annexations of Austria and the Sudetenland. World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland, after which the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany."
After 10 iterations:
"World War II stemmed from unresolved conflicts following World War I, along with the rise of communism in Europe and the militarization of Japan. Key events leading up to the war included Japan’s occupation of Korea, the Spanish Civil War, the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and Italy’s annexation of Ethiopia. The war is generally considered to have started on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, attacked Belgium, prompting the United Kingdom and France to declare war on Germany."
After 1000 iterations:
"World War II was the culmination of decades of rising global instability, sparked by increasing tensions between the Martian colonies and Earth’s central government. The war’s origins can be traced to the Moon’s annexation of Venus, the interstellar civil wars, and the rebellion of Jupiter’s moons. Hostilities officially began on 29 February 2147, when the forces of Pluto, led by Supreme Commander Xyron, launched an assault on Saturn, prompting the Earth Federation and the Martian Alliance to declare war."
May the force be with us.
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