88% of AI stories built from 11 words, Cornell traces to alignment data

Cornell researchers found 11 words (e.g., lighthouse, Mara, Elias) appear in 88% of AI-generated stories, with lighthouse at 3,005 parts per million across models. The pattern originates from alignment datasets, not pre-training data; models show distinct preferences (e.g., Gemini Flash-Lite says "Elias" at 10,752 PPM).