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ScienceQuiet 10d · day 12

Journalist uses AI to fake a scientific paper, testing IEEE's defenses

Benjamin Skuse teamed with IEEE Access editor Jenny Mahoney to see if AI-generated "research" could slip past peer review.

newest coverage 10d agosummary written 8d ago6 pieces52 likes & upvotes28 comments NewswiresHacker NewsMastodonGoogle News

What to know

  • An estimated 57 percent of published academic articles showed detectable AI influence by 2025, up from 12 percent in 2023, with disclosure rates far lower than actual use.
  • IEEE Spectrum's Benjamin Skuse, working with IEEE Access editor Jenny Mahoney, tested whether a non-expert using only free ChatGPT and Gemini could fabricate a convincing fake paper.
  • The experiment's second phase examined what happens when AI systems don't just write up fake findings but conduct the underlying 'research' themselves.
  • IEEE's research-integrity manager says AI slop threatens trust in the scientific process itself, not just individual papers.

“I assumed that using fake author names and affiliations would immediately raise a red flag, and I didn’t want to drag the names of established academics into the experiment, so the best bet was to name myself as the sole author.”

Benjamin Skuse, Experimenter, IEEE Spectrum writer · IEEE Spectrum ↗ · Oct 26

Benjamin Skuse IEEE Spectrum writer, experiment designerJenny Mahoney Managing editor, IEEE AccessAmanda Sulicz IEEE research-integrity manager

How it unfolded 3 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts

Peak 2 pieces in 3h at Oct 29, 5 AM; 6 pieces over 12 days (3 articles · 3 posts) Oct 27, 8 AM — 1 piece · 1 article — Newswires 1Oct 27, 11 AM — 1 piece · 1 post — Hacker News 1Oct 27, 2 PM — quietOct 27, 5 PM — quietOct 27, 8 PM — quietOct 27, 11 PM — quietOct 28, 2 AM — quietOct 28, 5 AM — quietOct 28, 8 AM — quietOct 28, 11 AM — quietOct 28, 2 PM — quietOct 28, 5 PM — quietOct 28, 8 PM — quietOct 28, 11 PM — 1 piece · 1 post — Mastodon 1Oct 29, 2 AM — quietOct 29, 5 AM — 2 pieces · 1 article · 1 post — Hacker News 1, Newswires 1Oct 29, 8 AM — quietOct 29, 11 AM — 1 piece · 1 article — Google News 1Oct 29, 2 PM — quietOct 29, 5 PM — quietOct 29, 8 PM — quietOct 29, 11 PM — quietOct 30, 2 AM — quietOct 30, 5 AM — quietOct 30, 8 AM — quietOct 30, 11 AM — quietOct 30, 2 PM — quietOct 30, 5 PM — quietOct 30, 8 PM — quietOct 30, 11 PM — quietOct 31, 2 AM — quietOct 31, 5 AM — quietOct 31, 8 AM — quietOct 31, 11 AM — quietOct 31, 2 PM — quietOct 31, 5 PM — quietOct 31, 8 PM — quietOct 31, 11 PM — quietNov 1, 1 AM — quietNov 1, 4 AM — quietNov 1, 7 AM — quietNov 1, 10 AM — quietNov 1, 1 PM — quietNov 1, 4 PM — quietNov 1, 7 PM — quietNov 1, 10 PM — quietNov 2, 1 AM — quietNov 2, 4 AM — quietNov 2, 7 AM — quietNov 2, 10 AM — quietNov 2, 1 PM — quietNov 2, 4 PM — quietNov 2, 7 PM — quietNov 2, 10 PM — quietNov 3, 1 AM — quietNov 3, 4 AM — quietNov 3, 7 AM — quietNov 3, 10 AM — quietNov 3, 1 PM — quietNov 3, 4 PM — quietNov 3, 7 PM — quietNov 3, 10 PM — quietNov 4, 1 AM — quietNov 4, 4 AM — quietNov 4, 7 AM — quietNov 4, 10 AM — quietNov 4, 1 PM — quietNov 4, 4 PM — quietNov 4, 7 PM — quietNov 4, 10 PM — quietNov 5, 1 AM — quietNov 5, 4 AM — quietNov 5, 7 AM — quietNov 5, 10 AM — quietNov 5, 1 PM — quietNov 5, 4 PM — quietNov 5, 7 PM — quietNov 5, 10 PM — quietNov 6, 1 AM — quietNov 6, 4 AM — quietNov 6, 7 AM — quietNov 6, 10 AM — quietNov 6, 1 PM — quietNov 6, 4 PM — quietNov 6, 7 PM — quietNov 6, 10 PM — quietYesterday, 1 AM — quietYesterday, 4 AM — quietYesterday, 7 AM — quietYesterday, 10 AM — quietYesterday, 1 PM — quietYesterday, 4 PM — quietYesterday, 7 PM — quietYesterday, 10 PM — quietToday, 1 AM — quietToday, 4 AM — quietToday, 7 AM — quietToday, 10 AM — quiet 1–23
Oct 28Oct 29Oct 30Oct 31Nov 1Nov 2Nov 3Nov 4Nov 5Nov 6now · 11:26 AM ET
  1. 3

    Account gains traction on Hacker News

    The IEEE Spectrum piece was resubmitted and climbed the Hacker News front page, drawing dozens of comments alongside separate pickups on Google News and Mastodon.

  2. 1 day quiet
  3. 2

    Experiment escalates to AI conducting the underlying research

    After testing whether an amateur could generate a convincing fake paper with off-the-shelf AI tools, Skuse raised the stakes to examine what happens when more advanced AI systems don't just write the paper but also conduct the underlying research.

  4. 1

    Skuse and IEEE Access agree to war-game a fake AI paper

    Benjamin Skuse asked Jenny Mahoney, managing editor of IEEE Access, to let him attempt to sneak an AI-generated, fully fabricated paper past the journal's defenses, using only free ChatGPT and Gemini with minimal human editing and himself as sole author.

    “I decided to “vibe-research” a made-up paper by prompting LLMs to generate hypotheses, code, and text with minimal human input.”
    — Benjamin Skuse
    1. 2 outlets I Used AI to Fake a Scientific Paper. Here’s What Happened

      first by IEEE Spectrum, 10d ago · also HN Frontpage

  5. background

    Academic publishing shows surging AI-slop evidence — Reported figures show an estimated 57 percent of published academic articles exhibited detectable LLM influence by 2025, up from 12 percent in 2023, with only 1 in 40 papers showing statistical evidence of AI use formally disclosing it; over 12 percent of Nature Communications reviews were found completely AI-generated.