Craig S. O'Dear

Missouri farm boy. Missouri S&T engineer. Vanderbilt lawyer. Photographer, pilot and motorcyclist. Political Independent.

[Nav Toor @heynavtoor]

You have noticed it. ChatGPT feels dumber than it used to. Your prompts that worked six months ago produce worse results now. The writing sounds flatter. The ideas sound safer. The internet itself feels like it is shrinking. Every article reads the same. Every email sounds the same. Every answer sounds like it was written by the same voice.

You thought it was you. It is not you.

Researchers at Oxford and Cambridge published a paper in Nature proving what is happening. They call it Model Collapse.

Here is the mechanism in one sentence. AI trained on AI-generated data gets dumber every generation until it forgets what real human data looked like.

The internet is filling with AI-generated content. Blog posts. Articles. Reviews. Comments. Social media. AI companies scrape the internet to train the next generation of models. Which means the next generation of AI is being trained on the output of the current generation.

Each cycle loses information. Not randomly. It loses the rarest, most unusual, most creative parts first. The researchers call these the "tails of the distribution." The weird ideas. The unexpected perspectives. The things that made the internet feel human. Those disappear first.

What remains is the average. The safe. The expected. The bland.

Then the next generation trains on that. And loses more. And the next generation trains on that. And loses more. The researchers proved this is not a slow decline. Major degradation happens within just a few iterations. Even when some of the original human data is preserved.

They tested it on large language models. On image generators. On statistical models. The pattern was the same every time. The output converges toward a narrow, flattened version of reality that looks nothing like the original data.

The lead researcher put it plainly. "Large language models are like fire. A useful tool. But one that pollutes the environment."

The pollution is invisible. You cannot see which sentence on the internet was written by a human and which was written by AI. Neither can the AI that is about to train on it. And once the tails are gone, they do not come back. The damage is irreversible.

This is not a prediction anymore. It is a diagnosis.

The internet you grew up on was built by humans writing things no algorithm would have written. Strange, personal, imperfect, alive. That internet is being diluted. One generation of AI at a time. And the models trained on what remains are learning a smaller and smaller version of the world.

Model Collapse is not a technical problem. It is a cultural one. The thing that made the internet worth reading is the thing that disappears first.

[Democratic Wins Media @DemocraticWins]

BREAKING: In an alarming display of cognitive decline, Donald Trump forgets how to say the word “rebuttal”. Trump is cognitively faltering in front of our eyes. Retweet so every American sees this.

[Rick Wilson @TheRickWilson]

Yesterday, Ken Burns reminded me of FDR's prayer delivered to the nation by radio on the night of June 6, 1944:

"My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas -- whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them--help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen."

[Don Winslow @donwinslow]

**NEW VIDEO** #TrumpCultWakeUp **NEW VIDEO**

Dear #MAGA and Trump followers,

Just watch this video.

It's called #TrumpCultWakeUp

And I hope at least some of you do.

[Craig S. O'Dear @CSODear]

@JJWatt @danorlovsky7 Listen to books—Audible is tremendous. Burn 750-800 calories AND get a mental workout. Listen to a book for entertainment, or listen to educate yourself about a topic of interest.

[Will Conway @heywillconway]

Invigorating meeting with the @FWD_Texas Executive Committee in Waco today. This crew is organized - they're doing the hard work of building a viable, durable, credible unifying new political party. @Joel_Searby just gave a tremendous talk on the roadmap forward. @Fwd_Party

[Craig S. O'Dear @CSODear]

@RexChapman @RexChapman, I love it when I see a professional athlete who is articulate and knowledgeable, and who is steadfast is standing for truth. Stay strong, my friend.

[Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 @AndrewYang]

It doesn’t look much like two parties, does it. https://t.co/QxcjI1DQwy

[Craig S. O'Dear @CSODear]

@ScottFightsALS @JamieLW8 Scott and Jamie, I have followed your journey. I want you to know how much I admire and respect your courage and humanity. Your decision to share your journey is an inspiration. My love and best wishes to both of you and your family.

[Joe Walsh @WalshFreedom]

I’m no longer a Republican because I believe in freedom and the rule of law.

[Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 @AndrewYang]

Most things either get better or worse - they don’t stay the same indefinitely. So trying to make it better is generally the right approach.

[Craig S. O'Dear @CSODear]

@laurajollyfl Beautiful family, @DavidJollyFL

[Missouri Stands United @MOStandsUnited]

John Wood is an independent candidate that all Missouri can be proud of. Let's show America something different.

#MOSen

[Craig S. O'Dear @CSODear]

@Chrisvance123 That’s awesome, Chris. Congratulations!

[Jack Suntrup @JackSuntrup]

NEWS - John Wood, former Jan. 6 investigator, launches independent bid for U.S. Senate in Missouri #mosen

https://t.co/MrnYiPzuHI via @stltoday