This is a low hanging fruit and I've been surprised that it's not called that from the moment I've discovered the phenomenon.
It's a term from biology where ants get separated from their party and start following the ant in front of them. Each ant lays down more pheromone, which reinforces the loop, which pulls in more ants. They march in a circle until they collapse from exhaustion.
The mechanism is structurally identical to what happens to a large language model. I propose we start calling it the spiral of death.
[link] [comments]