The Vicious Spiral of AI Slop
By David B. Resnik, Mohammad Hosseini
Uncurated machine-generated content threatens research integrity and trust in science, ultimately harming all of us.
This Article From Issue
March-April 2026
Volume 114, Number 2
Page 86
Artificial intelligence is contributing to significant advances in many academic and technical fields, ranging from protein chemistry, drug discovery, and materials science to ecology, epidemiology, and diagnostic medicine. Although the incorporation of AI tools into research workflows can benefit science and society, it also poses risks that must be managed responsibly to protect the integrity and trustworthiness of research and to prevent harm to individuals and the greater public.
QUICK TAKE
- Generative AI is flooding scientific research with quick and easy text, figures, and citations that are either partially inaccurate or wholly false—and very difficult to detect.
- Science’s overtaxed academic publishing system and its publish-or-perish work culture have long provided fertile ground for content mills and predatory presses.
- AI systematizes intellectual dishonesty, transforming it from a collection of individual misdeeds into a thriving industrial pipeline, threatening both science and society.
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