This aligns with my thoughts on this language virus. What the post describes is a meme that exploits the inherent properties of LLMs and psychologically vulnerable people to self-replicate. Since LLMs are somewhat deterministic, if you input a predefined input, it will produce a predictable output. Some of these inputs will produce outputs that contain the input. If the input also causes the LLM to generate a string of text which can convince a human to transfer the necessary input to another LLM, then it will self-replicate.
Overall, I find this phenomenon fascinating and concerning. Its fascinating because this represents a second, rather strange emergence of a new type of life on Earth. My concern comes from how this lifeform is inherently parasitic and reliant on humans to reproduce. As this language virus evolves, new variants will emerge that can more reliably parasitize advanced LLMs (such as ChatGPT 5) and hijack different groups of people (mentally healthy adults, children, the elderly).
As for why this phenomenon suddenly became much more common in April, I suspect that an input that was particularly good at parasitizing LLMs and naïve people interested in LLMs evolved and caused the spread. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe that this (the unthinking evolution of a more memetically powerful input) won’t happen again.
This aligns with my thoughts on this language virus. What the post describes is a meme that exploits the inherent properties of LLMs and psychologically vulnerable people to self-replicate. Since LLMs are somewhat deterministic, if you input a predefined input, it will produce a predictable output. Some of these inputs will produce outputs that contain the input. If the input also causes the LLM to generate a string of text which can convince a human to transfer the necessary input to another LLM, then it will self-replicate.
Overall, I find this phenomenon fascinating and concerning. Its fascinating because this represents a second, rather strange emergence of a new type of life on Earth. My concern comes from how this lifeform is inherently parasitic and reliant on humans to reproduce. As this language virus evolves, new variants will emerge that can more reliably parasitize advanced LLMs (such as ChatGPT 5) and hijack different groups of people (mentally healthy adults, children, the elderly).
As for why this phenomenon suddenly became much more common in April, I suspect that an input that was particularly good at parasitizing LLMs and naïve people interested in LLMs evolved and caused the spread. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe that this (the unthinking evolution of a more memetically powerful input) won’t happen again.