this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I feel like two different problems are conflated into one though.

  1. The academic review process is broken.
  2. AI generated bullshit is going to cause all sorts of issues.

Point two can contribute to point 1 but for that a bunch of stuff needs to happen. Correct my if I am wrong but as far as my understanding of peer-review processes are supposed to go it is something along the lines of:

  1. A researcher submits their manuscript to a journal.
  2. An editor of that journal validates the paper fits within the scope and aims of the journal. It might get rejected here or it gets send out for review.
  3. When it does get send out for review to several experts in the field, the actual peer reviewers. These are supposed to be knowledgeable about the specific topic the paper is about. These then read the paper closely and evaluate things like methodology, results, (lack of) data, and conclusions.
  4. Feedback goes to the editor, who then makes a call about the paper. It either gets accepted, revisions are required or it gets rejected.

If at point 3 people don't do the things I highlighted in bold then to me it seems like it is a bit silly to make this about AI. If at point 4 the editor ignores most feedback for the peer reviewers, then it again has very little to do with AI and everything the a base process being broken.

To summarize, yes AI is going to fuck up a lot of information, it already has. But by just shouting, “AI is at it again with its antics!” at every turn instead of looking further and at other core issues we will only make things worse.

Edit:

To be clear, I am not even saying that peer reviewers or editors should "just do their job already". But fake papers have been increasingly an issue for well over a decade as far as I am aware. The way the current peer review process works simply doesn't seem to scale to where we are today. And yes, AI is not going to help with that, but it is still building upon something that already was broken before AI was used to abuse it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I feel like this is the third time people are selective reading into what I have said.

I specifically acknowledge that AI is already causing all sorts of issues. I am also saying that there is also another issue at play. One that might be exacerbated by the use of AI but at its root isn't caused by AI.

In fact, in this very thread people have pointed out that *in this case" the journal in question is simply the issue. https://beehaw.org/comment/2416937

In fact. The only people likely noticed is, ironically, the fact that AI was being used.

And again I fully agree, AI is causing massive issues already and disturbing a lot of things in destructive ways. But, that doesn't mean all bullshit out there is caused by AI. Even if AI is tangible involved.

If that still, in your view, somehow makes me sound like an defensive AI evangelist then I don't know what to tell you...