Does your chatbot have 'brain rot'? 4 ways to tell

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ZDNET's key takeaways

• A recent paper found that AI can experience "brain rot."
• Models underperform after ingesting "junk data." 
• Users can test for these four warning signs. 

You know that oddly drained yet overstimulated feeling you get when you've been doomscrolling for too long, like you want to take a nap and yet simultaneously feel an urge to scream into your pillow? Turns out something similar happens to AI.

Last month, a team of AI researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, and Purdue University published a paper advancing what they call "the LLM Brain Rot Hypothesis" -- basically, that the output of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok will degrade the more they're exposed to "junk data" found on social media.

Also: OpenAI says it's working ...