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Large Language Models Suffer From Their Own Output: An Analysis of the Self-Consuming Training Loop

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arxiv 2311.16822 v2 pith:JOLJIJRD submitted 2023-11-28 cs.LG cs.CLcs.NE

classification cs.LGcs.CLcs.NE
keywords contentloopself-consumingtraininglanguagellm-generatedllmsused
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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Large Language Models (LLM) are already widely used to generate content for a variety of online platforms. As we are not able to safely distinguish LLM-generated content from human-produced content, LLM-generated content is used to train the next generation of LLMs, giving rise to a self-consuming training loop. From the image generation domain we know that such a self-consuming training loop reduces both quality and diversity of images finally ending in a model collapse. However, it is unclear whether this alarming effect can also be observed for LLMs. Therefore, we present the first study investigating the self-consuming training loop for LLMs. Further, we propose a novel method based on logic expressions that allows us to unambiguously verify the correctness of LLM-generated content, which is difficult for natural language text. We find that the self-consuming training loop produces correct outputs, however, the output declines in its diversity depending on the proportion of the used generated data. Fresh data can slow down this decline, but not stop it. Given these concerning results, we encourage researchers to study methods to negate this process.

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Cited by 5 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. OpenAlex reports about 9 citations worldwide. Full citation record

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    Repeated maximum-likelihood retraining on self-generated data collapses exponential-family models, but a single fresh external data point or a prior stabilizes them.

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    After ChatGPT's release, science and tech podcast speakers used AI-associated words like 'surpass' and 'align' more often, while control synonyms showed no average shift.

  3. Exploring the Structure of AI-Induced Language Change in Scientific English

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  4. What Matters in LLM-generated Data: Diversity and Its Effect on Model Fine-Tuning

    cs.CL 2025-06 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Moderately diverse LLM-generated data can improve fine-tuned model performance in low-data settings when distribution shift is minimal, while high diversity or large distribution shift hurts.

  5. The safety failures we are not instrumenting: a perspective on hidden safety-critical challenges in modern AI systems

    cs.CY 2026-07 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

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