Artificial intelligence is filling the scholarly record with fake scientific research, supercharging a long-running problem of scientific fraud, experts warn. It is spreading error, misleading people in dangerous ways, and eroding public trust, the Epoch Times reports.

Academic paper mills—fake organizations that profit from falsified studies and authorship—have plagued scholars for years and AI is now acting as a force multiplier. … The scope of the problem is staggering, with more than 10,000 research papers retracted globally in 2023, according to Nature Portfolio.

Manuscripts fabricated using large language models (llms) are proliferating across multiple academic disciplines and platforms, including Google Scholar, the University of Borås found. A recent analysis published in Nature Portfolio observed that llm tools including Chatgpt, Gemini and Claude can generate plausible research that passes standard plagiarism checks.

“Real researchers drowning in noise, peer reviewers are overwhelmed, and citations are being polluted with fabricated references,” one expert told the Epoch Times. He described large language models as “sophisticated pattern-matching systems that are incredibly good at producing plausible-sounding text, and that’s exactly what fake research needs to look credible.” The more such material fills the scholarly record, the more it creates a feedback loop that generates still more junk science.

The ripple effects are already widespread, and potential damage could be many times worse, undermining the entire field of scientific research and advancement.

All history has witnessed a battle between true science and “science falsely so called” (1 Timothy 6:20). True science has benefited human life considerably and even revealed some of the invisible things of God (Romans 1:20). But the god of this world, who deceives the whole world (2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 12:9), has been able to use false science as a tool to mislead mankind and draw us away from our Creator.

AI is proving to be an extraordinarily powerful weapon in the devil’s arsenal in many ways, and his influence over it may be greater than any of us fully recognize. To learn more, read Gerald Flurry’s article “The Unknown Future of Artificial Intelligence.”