Maybe if you're a programmer it's easier to understand how this sort of thing will inevitably happen, but regardless it's a pretty good look behind the curtain of how non-magical LLMs are, and how the complexity of the output masks how derivative they are.
Fade In
When you ask ChatGPT or any popular LLM to tell you a story, one name keeps coming up: "Elias Thorne." Depending which chatbot you ask, he's a lighthousekeeper, clockmaker or explorer.
His stories are also flooding Amazon's AI-generated book market, YouTube slop, and fake news.
Who is he?
LLMs including ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude are obsessed with telling stories about lighthouse keepers and clockmakers, and one character named 'Elias Thorne' has made his way from chatbots to Amazon bo...
