Teplitskiy: AI-generated “slop” is polluting scientific citations

There’s a growing number of academic papers containing fabricated citations, reflecting mounting concerns about the quality of AI-assisted research.

University of Michigan School of Information assistant professor Misha Teplitskiy, an expert in the role of technology in driving scientific discovery, discussed this trend with STAT News, and commented on how generative AI tools are contributing to false references in scholarly publishing. 

“One question that all of us have is: ‘Is AI making science more efficient, helping us do better work, or even the same work, but faster, or is it just creating slop?” he says. 

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Read “Fraudulent citations, blamed on AI hallucinations, are becoming more common in research papers” at STAT News. 

Misha Teplitskiy is an assistant professor of information at the University of Michigan School of Information. Learn more about his research by visiting his UMSI profile.