AI-generated images threaten science — here’s how researchers hope to spot them

Generative-AI technologies can create convincing scientific data with ease — publishers and integrity specialists fear a torrent of faked science.

November 5, 2024

Nature

Diana Kwon

"From scientists manipulating figures to the mass production of fake papers by paper mills, problematic manuscripts have long plagued the scholarly literature. Science sleuths work tirelessly to uncover this misconduct to correct the scientific record. But their job is becoming harder, owing to the introduction of a powerful new tool for fraudsters: generative artificial intelligence (AI).

“Generative AI is evolving very fast,” says Jana Christopher, an image-integrity analyst at FEBS Press in Heidelberg, Germany. “The people that work in my field — image integrity and publication ethics — are getting increasingly worried about the possibilities that it offers.”

The ease with which generative-AI tools can create text, images and data raises fears of an increasingly untrustworthy scientific literature awash with fake figures, manuscripts and conclusions that are difficult for humans to spot. Already, an arms race is emerging as integrity specialists, publishers and technology companies race to develop AI tools that can assist in rapidly detecting deceptive, AI-generated elements of papers.

'It’s a scary development,' Christopher says. 'But there are also clever people and good structural changes that are being suggested.'"

Ranking Pressure Takes Toll On Research Credibility

As fake research ‘papermills’ exploit the system, B-schools scramble to safeguard the credibility of their research institutions.

November 7, 2024

FORTUNE India

Manoj Sharma

"In 2023, the name Dionisio Lorenzo Villegas, professor and dean at Spain’s Universidad Fernando Pessoa-Canarias in Las Palmas, started appearing in research papers across reputed journals. His collaborators came from far-flung regions such as India, China, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

As it turned out, following an investigation by Retraction Watch, a platform that tracks retractions across scientific publications, he was part of the so-called “academic papermill”. Without actual research, he bought his way into these publications by paying $290-400 and managed to publish six-seven articles in reputed journals.

The ringmaster of the operation was Chennai-based Sarath Ranganthan, who ran an entity called iTrilon. Now disbanded, it sold authorship of ‘readymade papers’ to researchers."





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