Accelerated Enshittification: LLM’s and the pollution of our knowledge sphere

Coined by writer Cory Doctorow, enshittification describes the continuous quality decay of platforms and online services such as Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Google Search etc.

AI-powered tools allow for rapid production of content which might be sold or create advertising revenue when consumed. This talk will inquire whether LLM’s constitute a challenge for our knowledge sphere through a possible accelerated dissemination of inferior, inaccurate or factually wrong content. From reviews to product descriptions and books, this talk will explore our efforts to scrutinize the proliferation of AI-generated materials on platforms like Amazon, and Spotify. Furthermore, we will discuss whether and how AI tools could be harnessed to identify and counteract the spread of such AI-produced content on a large scale.

Speaker: Joris Veerbeek and Mirko Schäfer (Utrecht Data School)