How AI slop is causing a crisis in computer science
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Preprint repositories and conference organizers are having to counter a tide of ‘AI slop’ submissions.
Email Bluesky Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Whatsapp X Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Fifty-four seconds. That’s how long it took Raphael Wimmer to write up an experiment that he did not actually perform, using a new artificial-intelligence tool called Prism, released by OpenAI last month. “Writing a paper has never been easier. Clogging the scientific publishing pipeline has never been easier,” wrote Wimmer, a researcher in human–computer action at the University of Regensburg in Germany, on Bluesky. Access options Access through your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $32.99 / 30 days cancel any time Learn more Subscribe to this journal Receive 51 print issues and online access $199.00 per year only $3.90 per issue Learn more Rent or buy this article Prices vary by article type from$1.95 to$39.95 Learn more Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03967-9 ReferencesKusumegi, K. et al. Science 390, 1240–1243 (2025).Article PubMed Google Scholar Zhang, P. et al. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.15126 (2025).Download references Reprints and permissions Related Articles Computer science has a racism problem: these researchers want to fix it AI chatbots are sycophants — researchers say it’s harming science AI hallucinations can’t be stopped — but these techniques can limit their damag...
