{ "slug": "check-the-date", "title": "Check the Date: What We Know About AI Goes Stale Fast, So the Best Habit Is to Label It and Test It Again", "url": "https://emberandoakinstitute.com/blog/check-the-date.html", "date": "2026-11-03", "category": "AI news", "tags": [ "artificial intelligence", "robotics", "AI research", "AI disclosure", "video games", "warehouse robots", "robot safety", "education", "AI news" ], "summary": "What we know about AI goes stale fast: Stanford's Queen and Zou re-tested 50 widely cited LLM findings on 20 models and found 44% expired (16% within a year, 39% within two); Steam AI disclosures reached 40.1% of 2026 releases (PCGame.com community tally); itch.io deleted terabytes of AI spam and widened AI disclosure rules and search filtering; Boston Dynamics rebuilt Stretch Gen 2 around real-world downtime data; Stanford ASL's ConstrainedMimic adds after-training safety filters for humanoids. The habit for learners: date what you know, label AI work honestly, re-test.", "images": { "hero": { "url": "https://emberandoakinstitute.com/blog/check-the-date/hero.jpg", "alt": "Painted storybook scene in a cozy Mat-Su Valley log cabin kitchen on a November evening: a smiling grandmother with silver hair in a bun holds a glass jar of berries up to the lamplight while a girl with a long braid ties a blank paper tag onto another jar. A boy in a green sweater sets a jar on a wooden shelf next to a small, friendly cream-and-copper robot that steadies a basket of jars with its jointed gripper. Through the window, green northern lights glow over spruce trees and snowy mountains." }, "charts": [ { "url": "https://emberandoakinstitute.com/blog/check-the-date/chart-shelf-life.png", "alt": "Grouped bar chart from Stanford's study of 50 published claims about AI chatbots. Six months after publication, 64% of claims were still at full strength and an estimated 4% had expired. After one year, 47% were at full strength and 16% had expired. After two years, 31% were at full strength and 39% had expired.", "source": "https://zou-group.github.io/llm-claims-shelf-life/" }, { "url": "https://emberandoakinstitute.com/blog/check-the-date/chart-steam-ai-disclosure.png", "alt": "Bar chart of the share of new Steam games carrying a developer-reported AI disclosure, by release year: 2023, 1.4% (175 of 12,902, counting only disclosures added later); 2024, 13.2% (2,299 of 17,406); 2025, 23.9% (4,930 of 20,586); 2026 through Nov. 3, 40.1% (10,427 of 25,988).", "source": "https://www.pcgame.com/steam-ai-statistics" } ] }, "key_facts": [ { "fact": "Stanford's Owen Queen and James Zou (Nov. 2, 2026) re-tested 50 widely cited LLM claims on 20 models released July 2024 to Sept. 2026 from eight developers: 22 expired (44%), 17 weakened (34%), 8 persist (16%), 3 strengthened (6%). Expired = fitted effect at or below one-fifth of the paper's.", "source": "https://zou-group.github.io/llm-claims-shelf-life/" }, { "fact": "Estimated share expired: 4% at 6 months, 16% at 1 year, 39% at 2 years (Kaplan-Meier); share at full strength (e>=0.8): 64%, 47%, 31%. Expired claims lasted 15.7 months on average (median 14.7).", "source": "https://zou-group.github.io/llm-claims-shelf-life/" }, { "fact": "Walters & Wilder (2023): 55% of GPT-3.5 citations fake; Stanford re-test: Claude Sonnet 5.5 fabricated about 1% and GPT-6.1 Sol 0%, but Qwen3.7-Flash fabricated 69%.", "source": "https://zou-group.github.io/llm-claims-shelf-life/" }, { "fact": "Expired: letter counting, lost-in-the-middle, fabricated citations, abandoning correct answers when challenged. Persisting: flattering/agreeing with users, judges favoring own answers, answering when they should abstain.", "source": "https://zou-group.github.io/llm-claims-shelf-life/" }, { "fact": "Quotes: \"What we know about AI may have a surprisingly short shelf life.\" \"A finding is an observation about particular models at a particular time, not a fixed property of language models.\" Papers should report \"the model, version and date with each result.\"", "source": "https://zou-group.github.io/llm-claims-shelf-life/" }, { "fact": "PCGame.com (data as of Nov. 3, 2026): 40.1% of 2026 Steam releases (10,427 of 25,988) carry Valve's AI flag; 2025 23.9% (4,930 of 20,586); 2024 13.2% (2,299 of 17,406); 2023 1.4% (175 of 12,902, later-added disclosures). Self-reported.", "source": "https://www.pcgame.com/steam-ai-statistics" }, { "fact": "2026 Steam: 47% of games with <10 reviews disclose vs 14% with 1,000+; disclosed games are 40% of releases but 12% of reviews; uses: art 63%, text 30%, store/marketing 26%, music 21%, code 17%, voices 7%, AI during play 3%; 8% marketing only.", "source": "https://www.pcgame.com/steam-ai-statistics" }, { "fact": "Steam tally is by Reddit user u/ploz, operator of PCGame.com; community analysis, not Valve data.", "source": [ "https://magica.com/news/steam-ai-disclosures-october-2026", "https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/almost-half-of-all-new-steam-games-use-ai-now-3423933/" ] }, { "fact": "itch.io: game pages created per day doubled in past 2 months (Oct. 31); downloads and purchases have not doubled; increase driven by first-time uploaders, not bulk uploaders.", "source": [ "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mz7vswlnbs23", "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mz7vzjwhgs23", "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mzdzb3hils2h" ] }, { "fact": "itch.io (Nov. 2 PST): \"Just deleted a couple terabytes of ai slop\"; AI spam clause in quality guidelines for over two years; tabletop, books, comics and soundtracks now require AI disclosure (game assets for 2 years); AI disclosure filtering added to search results.", "source": [ "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mzev6ghw5s2x", "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mzevpzrqdc2h", "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mzewzv54dc2h", "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mzezjvqexs2h" ] }, { "fact": "itch.io's filter relies on creator answers; projects without an answer carry no tag.", "source": "https://howtovideogame.com/itchio-ai-disclosure-search-filter/" }, { "fact": "Boston Dynamics Stretch Gen 2 (Nov. 3, 2026): built from data on 100,000+ operating hours and tens of millions of boxes; 81% less internal cabling; continuous-rotation joints; swerve drive swap about one hour instead of a full day; up to 1,000 cases/hour; fleet-wide software updates. Quote from Brian Donnelly.", "source": [ "https://bostondynamics.com/news/boston-dynamics-launches-next-generation-stretch-robot/", "https://x.com/BostonDynamics/status/2117663862564573240" ] }, { "fact": "Stanford ASL ConstrainedMimic (Morton, Mohnot, Pavone; CoRL 2026): runtime safety filters enforce constraints specified after training (collision avoidance, joint limits, center-of-mass stability) at >1 kHz; no retraining; on Unitree G1 hardware, kinematic-only and dynamic-only filters each allowed small violations, both together kept it safe.", "source": [ "https://stanfordasl.github.io/constrainedmimic/", "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.00374", "https://x.com/drmapavone/status/2117480467964506544" ] } ], "sources": [ { "name": "Owen Queen and James Zou, Stanford University, \"The shelf life of LLM findings\" (Nov. 2, 2026)", "url": "https://zou-group.github.io/llm-claims-shelf-life/" }, { "name": "PCGame.com, \"AI on Steam in 2026: 40.1% of new games disclose AI content (statistics)\" (data as of Nov. 3, 2026)", "url": "https://www.pcgame.com/steam-ai-statistics" }, { "name": "Magica, \"AI disclosures cover nearly half of October Steam releases, tally finds\" (Nov. 2, 2026)", "url": "https://magica.com/news/steam-ai-disclosures-october-2026" }, { "name": "Dexerto, \"Almost half of all new Steam games use AI now\" (Nov. 2, 2026)", "url": "https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/almost-half-of-all-new-steam-games-use-ai-now-3423933/" }, { "name": "itch.io (@itch.io) on Bluesky, game pages per day doubled (Oct. 31, 2026)", "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mz7vswlnbs23" }, { "name": "itch.io on Bluesky, downloads and purchases not doubled (Oct. 31, 2026)", "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mz7vzjwhgs23" }, { "name": "itch.io on Bluesky, increase driven by first-time uploaders (Nov. 2, 2026)", "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mzdzb3hils2h" }, { "name": "itch.io on Bluesky, \"Just deleted a couple terabytes of ai slop\" (Nov. 2, 2026)", "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mzev6ghw5s2x" }, { "name": "itch.io on Bluesky, AI spam clause reminder (Nov. 2, 2026)", "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mzevpzrqdc2h" }, { "name": "itch.io on Bluesky, AI disclosure required for more categories (Nov. 2, 2026)", "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mzewzv54dc2h" }, { "name": "itch.io on Bluesky, AI disclosure filtering in search (Nov. 2, 2026)", "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/itch.io/post/3mzezjvqexs2h" }, { "name": "How To Video Game, \"itch.io Adds AI Disclosure Filtering to Its Search\" (Nov. 3, 2026)", "url": "https://howtovideogame.com/itchio-ai-disclosure-search-filter/" }, { "name": "Boston Dynamics, \"Boston Dynamics Launches Next Generation Stretch Robot\" (Nov. 3, 2026)", "url": "https://bostondynamics.com/news/boston-dynamics-launches-next-generation-stretch-robot/" }, { "name": "Boston Dynamics (@BostonDynamics) on X, Nov. 3, 2026", "url": "https://x.com/BostonDynamics/status/2117663862564573240" }, { "name": "Daniel Morton, Pranit Mohnot and Marco Pavone, \"Constrained Whole-Body Tracking for Humanoid Robots,\" project page (Stanford ASL)", "url": "https://stanfordasl.github.io/constrainedmimic/" }, { "name": "Morton, Mohnot and Pavone, arXiv:2606.00374 (accepted to CoRL 2026)", "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.00374" }, { "name": "Marco Pavone (@drmapavone) on X, Nov. 3, 2026", "url": "https://x.com/drmapavone/status/2117480467964506544" } ], "not_verified_or_excluded": [ "Steam October 2026 monthly figure (49.9%) and 68% vs 37% prolific-developer split: reported from the Reddit post/stats page; monthly figure's primary (Reddit) not reachable, so omitted", "Osmani 'cognitive surrender' post is from May 2026 (not new)", "Altman Navier-Stokes claims (dollar figures, unverified)" ] }