AI "Research" Papers Are Complete Slop, Experts Say

"There's sloppy science, and there's AI slop science. In an ironic twist of fate, beleaguered AI researchers are warning that the field is being choked by a deluge of shoddy academic papers written with large language models, making it harder than ever for high quality work to be discovered and stand out. Part of the problem is that AI research has surged in popularity."

"The more people who jump on the wagon, the more some are trying to speedrun an academic reputation by churning out dozens - and sometimes even hundreds - of papers a year, giving the entire pursuit a bad name. In an interview with The Guardian, professor of computer science at UC Berkeley Hany Farid called the state of affairs a "frenzy." With so much slop rising to the top, he says he now advises his students not to enter the field."

Low-quality AI research generated with large language models has proliferated, flooding conferences and journals and obscuring high-quality work. Many newcomers are producing dozens or even hundreds of papers per year to accelerate academic reputations, degrading the signal-to-noise ratio. Hany Farid, a UC Berkeley computer science professor, calls the situation a "frenzy" and warns students against entering the field. An individual named Kevin Zhu reportedly claims participation in over a hundred AI papers this year, with some involvement tied to a paid Algoverse program that recruits student coauthors. The surge strains peer review and raises concerns about research standards.

Read at Futurism