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AI models generate fictional 'ghost authors' plaguing academic publishing

A new research paper from Samsung and the University of Warsaw has identified a phenomenon where large language models consistently generate the same fictional expert names across various contexts. These AI-generated personas, such as Elena Vasquez and Elias Thorne, are appearing as authors on hundreds of academic papers, articles, and books, contributing to the contamination of the academic publishing record. The study found that these 'ghost authors' are indexed by aggregators like Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar, and even assigned Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) on platforms like Zenodo, raising concerns about the integrity of scholarly information. AI

IMPACT Raises concerns about the integrity of academic research and the potential for AI-generated content to be indistinguishable from human work.

RANK_REASON Paper details a novel finding about LLM behavior and its impact on academic publishing. [lever_c_demoted from research: ic=1 ai=1.0]

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AI models generate fictional 'ghost authors' plaguing academic publishing

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Paper details a novel finding about LLM behavior and its impact on academic publishing. [lever_c_demoted from research: ic=1 ai=1.0]
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COVERAGE [1]

  1. 404 Media TIER_1 English(EN) · Emanuel Maiberg ·

    The AI ‘Ghosts’ Contaminating Academic Publishing

    “The academic record is being quietly haunted” by researchers with names like Elena Vasquez and Marcus Chen.