In February, an absurd, AI-generated rat penis somehow snuck its way into a since retracted Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology article. Now that odd travesty seems like it may just be a particularly loud example of a more persistent problem brewing in scientific literature. Journals are currently at a crossroads on how best to respond to researchers using popular but factually questionable generative AI tools to help draft manuscripts or produce images. Detecting evidence of AI use isn’t always easy, but a new report from 404 Media this week shows what appears to be dozens of partially AI-generated published articles hiding in plain sight. The dead give away? Commonly uttered, computer generated jargon.
404 Media searched the AI-generated phrase “As of my last knowledge update” into Google Scholar’s public database and reportedly found 115 different articles that appeared to have relied on copy and pasted AI model outputs. That string of words are one of many turns of phrase often churned out by large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In this case, the “knowledge update” refers to the period when a model’s reference data was updated. Chat. Other common generative-AI phrases include “As an AI language model” and “regenerate response.” Outside of academic literature, these AI artifacts have appeared scattered in Amazon product reviews, and across social media platforms.
Several of the papers cited by 404 Media appeared to copy the AI text directly into peer-reviewed papers purporting to explain complex research topics like quantum entanglement and the performance of lithium metal batteries. Other examples of journal articles appearing to include the common generative AI phrase “I don’t have access to real-time data” were also shared on X, formerly Twitter, over the weekend. At least some of the examples reviewed by PopSci did appear to be in relation to research into AI models. The AI utterances,…
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