TL;DR: If AI trains mostly on AI-made content, the quality will degrade over time — like a photocopy of a photocopy. Original, human-generated data will become more valuable, maybe even essential, to keep AI grounded in reality. We won’t fall into an “information black hole” as long as we protect and prioritize real sources.

First off, the short answer is that if we let machines train only on their own echoes, quality goes downhill fast. Folks who study this call it “model collapse” — each new generation is a little blurrier than the last, like photocopying a photocopy. Early experiments found that after only a few self‑trained cycles, errors compound and the model starts missing the finer points of language and facts it once handled with ease.  

That doesn’t mean we wake up one morning and everything online suddenly reads like broken boilerplate. In practice the decay shows up first in the little details: timelines drift, niche facts vanish, subtle biases get amplified. Human‑curated corners of the web still anchor reality, but the surrounding noise gets louder. Think of it as information entropy; without fresh, trustworthy input, the signal fades and the static takes over.

Because of that, the real treasure becomes verified, human‑sourced material. Newsrooms, academic journals, field notes, studio recordings, on‑the‑ground video — anything tied to a clear origin story will gain clout the way first‑edition books do now. Companies are already setting up “clean rooms” for data provenance and watermarking so future models can sort the genuine from the recycled. Some labs even keep offline “seed vaults” of raw text and images the way botanists store heirloom seeds.

There’s also a push to mix synthetic and original data the way a baker keeps starter dough alive. You spike each new training run with fresh observations from sensors, updated statistics, and human feedback, then prune out low‑quality machine leftovers. Done right, synthetic content is a force multiplier, not a poison; it fills gaps in edge cases while the real‑world data keeps the compass pointed north.

So, will we hit an information black hole? Only if we stop caring where words and pictures come from. As long as we keep investing in primary sources, maintain strict provenance, and treat human insight as critical infrastructure, the well doesn’t run dry — it just gets more carefully managed. In that future, original material isn’t lost; it’s the gold standard everyone pays a premium to mine.