AI becomes dumber when trained on viral internet content — and there’s no cure

Whether it’s hours spent scrolling through TikTok or a good doomscroll across long, rambling X threads, we’re all guilty of engaging in one of life’s more recent trends: “brainrot”.

That rather intense phrase relates to a trend of declining cognitive concentration driven by short-form, attention-grabbing content. In other words, content is designed for a reduced attention span.