Monoculture-induced correlated failures and cultural homogenization from foundation models

Establish whether reliance on a monoculture of foundation models leads to correlated failures across downstream applications and contributes to cultural homogenization in deployed systems.

Background

The paper discusses risks associated with algorithmic monocultures, where many applications depend on the same or a small set of foundation models, potentially reducing societal resilience.

It cites conjectures in the literature linking monoculture to correlated failures and cultural homogenization, suggesting the need for empirical and theoretical validation to guide policy and design choices that diversify models and mitigate systemic risks.