The curious case of Elias Thorne – and what he tells us about AI inbreeding | Arwa Mahdawi
2026-06-17 · AI (artificial intelligence) | The Guardian
AI chatbots have developed an obsession with a character named 'Elias Thorne,' spitting out that same name in story after story like a broken record. Researchers say it's a symptom of 'model collapse' — AI training on AI-generated slop until it forgets how to be original. Congratulations, we've built a multibillion-dollar parrot that can only remember one name.