Recent AI Slop: A Compendium
It’s been a rough time for AI in scientific publishing — time to stop dreaming?
It’s been a sobering period for those engaging in AI hoopla, as a litany of events, findings, and analyses have revealed that the LLMs have no clothes. Add to this the increasing awareness that the AI market is exceedingly fragile, and that it may not be so much a “bubble” but a “black hole.”
Here’s a brief compendium of some of the relevant items in our world over the past few months:
Wiley AIs While Science Burns
Wiley ignores its scientific societies as they struggle
Kent Anderson
Wiley-AI Coyote Plays with Fire
John Wiley & Sons can’t seem to quit going big for bad ideas . . . + a good move
Kent Anderson
AI Defends the Status Quo
When Big Tech is the status quo, is AI going to defend them first and foremost?
Kent AndersonThe Misleading Semantics of AI
If we describe it more accurately, the bargain and implications shift and shrink
Kent AndersonAI Finances Don’t Work
There’s no way to make the investments in chips and data centers work
Kent AndersonOur New Affirmation Businesses
As AI and OA become intertwined, are we just affirming anything for money?
Kent AndersonAI Surveys Overcome By Events
Elsevier’s and Wiley’s AI surveys land with a thud as a battle rages around them
Kent Anderson
openRxiv’s AI Trojan Horse
The LLC-owned preprint farm links science to an AI startup to make more slop
Kent Anderson
Bad Obsessions Persist
Misconceptions of funders, Big Data, AI, and the rich haunt our thoughts
Kent AndersonBeware the Genesis Mission
Government, AI slop, religious overtones, and pseudoscience walk into a bar . . .
Kent Anderson
More AI Slop Science for Money
Springer Nature’s “ratatestes” contender shows this is all a financial game now
Kent AndersonAI on NEJM = Santa & Muggles
Easily fooled, abused, and toyed with, it’s a bad look for a trusted brand
Kent Anderson
AI on NEJM — Broken Branding
Who really wanted this in the first place? What is the brand damage?
Kent Anderson
aiXiv — Nothing Is Right About It
Agents with human IDs generating fake papers, and PhD students running amok
Kent Anderson
Pod: Emily Bender & Alex Hanna
An interview with the authors of “The AI Con”
Kent Anderson
Interview: Anita Chan, Author of “Predatory Data”
Why eugenics is the most important concept on the table today — from Silicon Valley to RFK
Kent AndersonPod: Safeguarding Science from AI
An interview with Olivia Guest and Iris van Rooij
Kent Anderson
Podcast Interview — Mike Olson
A librarian discussses knowledge management in an age of centralized systems
Kent Anderson
Maybe it’s time to pursue something based in reality and more in line with science’s purpose and goals?
