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Reposted by Kristian Ulrichsen

Cow BWZ 4793 @cowbwz4793.bsky.social · Aug 29

And those students then using AI to write assignments, so they never learn to research, evaluate data, & then write academic papers for themselves, and therefore have to rely on AI to write professional articles throughout their career...

I've realised AI is nothing more than a pyramid scheme.

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Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 29

Yes, exactly.

Paddleboat Galactica @early-adopter.bsky.social · Aug 29

This gets at a key problem posed by wide LLM adoption. It used to be, you had to put some *work* into plausible-sounding BS. Even AI hallucinations tend to *look right*. No “this looks like a lazy fabrication” tells.

It’s not necessarily more errors than human, it’s *much better disguised* errors.

Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 23

What’s so pernicious about the fake references is they are plausible enough to seem genuine.

My ‘article’ was titled ‘The Qatar standoff and the tribal politics of the GCC’ and attributed to the Journal of Arabian Studies in 2022.

I’ve written about the topic and published in this journal before.

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Reposted by Kristian Ulrichsen

Paddleboat Galactica @early-adopter.bsky.social · Aug 29

This gets at a key problem posed by wide LLM adoption. It used to be, you had to put some *work* into plausible-sounding BS. Even AI hallucinations tend to *look right*. No “this looks like a lazy fabrication” tells.

It’s not necessarily more errors than human, it’s *much better disguised* errors.

Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 23

What’s so pernicious about the fake references is they are plausible enough to seem genuine.

My ‘article’ was titled ‘The Qatar standoff and the tribal politics of the GCC’ and attributed to the Journal of Arabian Studies in 2022.

I’ve written about the topic and published in this journal before.

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Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 29

Given that I recently (for the first time) had to check a box to confirm I had not used AI in my review (for a journal I’ve reviewed for in the past, most recently in June), this may already be showing up, hence the new box.

Prof Katherine Schofield 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇪🇺 @katherineschof8.bsky.social · Aug 27

I mean, at least you’re a human peer reviewing and they’ve not got AI to peer review the AI written paper…

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Reposted by Kristian Ulrichsen

Peter Ellis @freerangestats.info · Aug 29

What consequences do they get for falsifying references? It should be a professional punishment, like if an engineered were found to have faked the calculations for a building's safety. Banned from submitting to this and associated journals for a year or more, to start with.

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Jenny Mathers @jgmaber.bsky.social · Aug 29

In a book submitted to a publisher. This is a problem that goes well beyond students looking for ways to cut corners when writing a paper.

Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 23

I'm peer reviewing a manuscript for a reputable publisher and came across fake references which must be AI-generated - including to an article attributed to me which sounds fascinating but which I never wrote.

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Reposted by Kristian Ulrichsen

Poindogster @jgaertnerr.bsky.social · Aug 29

This is how LLMs work- the title of the work and the webpage URL are completely fabricated. If they did, like, 4 more seconds of validating they would be able to find the work they were looking for; the content, reference article, and even the website it based its response on are all real.

Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 23

What’s so pernicious about the fake references is they are plausible enough to seem genuine.

My ‘article’ was titled ‘The Qatar standoff and the tribal politics of the GCC’ and attributed to the Journal of Arabian Studies in 2022.

I’ve written about the topic and published in this journal before.

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Reposted by Kristian Ulrichsen

wergenga @wergenga.bsky.social · Aug 29

Happened to me as well. Half of the references in a submission to a top journal in my field were clearly hallucinated. The content was however plausible, even if somewhat incremental. Immediate reject.

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Reposted by Kristian Ulrichsen

David Bartram @dbartram.bsky.social · Aug 29

I'd think publishers could (and should) develop detection methods for this sort of thing. It can't be all that hard to scan the bibliography and flag situations where a title can't be matched to an author.

I wouldn't expect the editors to see it via manual checking. It's up to the publishers.

Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 23

I'm peer reviewing a manuscript for a reputable publisher and came across fake references which must be AI-generated - including to an article attributed to me which sounds fascinating but which I never wrote.

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Reposted by Kristian Ulrichsen

Dr Katie Twomey @k2mey.bsky.social · Aug 29

Since Google Scholar searches return citations, won't fabricated citations eventually turn up in them?

Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 23

I'm peer reviewing a manuscript for a reputable publisher and came across fake references which must be AI-generated - including to an article attributed to me which sounds fascinating but which I never wrote.

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Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 29

It baffles me to think that it doesn’t even dawn on them that a third party won’t recognize that references are falsified.’

At what point must something give?

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Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 29

From a journal editor:

I’m at the coalface of it here, and you wouldn’t believe some of what we see when editing. Proper academics who don’t seem to realise that they swim in what is actually a very small pond.

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Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 23

I'm peer reviewing a manuscript for a reputable publisher and came across fake references which must be AI-generated - including to an article attributed to me which sounds fascinating but which I never wrote.

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Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 29

This is what I worry about.

Xavi Cugat - Energía @revenergetica.bsky.social · Aug 28

Soon we will no longer know what is fake and what is real, and reality will begin to distort.

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Eduardo Suárez @eduardosuarez.bsky.social · Aug 28

AI is disrupting academic research as well (and fast)

Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 23

I'm peer reviewing a manuscript for a reputable publisher and came across fake references which must be AI-generated - including to an article attributed to me which sounds fascinating but which I never wrote.

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Reposted by Kristian Ulrichsen

Mirjam S. @teunemans.bsky.social · Aug 28

This is insane!

Generative AI goes rogue and makes things up. Plausible things, but still untrue.

Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 23

I'm peer reviewing a manuscript for a reputable publisher and came across fake references which must be AI-generated - including to an article attributed to me which sounds fascinating but which I never wrote.

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Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 27

I did a review last week for a journal and for the first time I had to check a box to say I had not used AI in my review.

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Dr Jamie Paris @jamieparis.bsky.social · Aug 27

Submitting an AI article with fake references to a peer reviewed journal should be a friable offence

Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 23

I'm peer reviewing a manuscript for a reputable publisher and came across fake references which must be AI-generated - including to an article attributed to me which sounds fascinating but which I never wrote.

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Reposted by Kristian Ulrichsen

Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 27

Am reading a review copy and it is 🔥

Abu Aardvark’s Ghost @abuaardvark.bsky.social · Aug 14

“Written with passion, precision, honesty and courage. Essential reading on how American myopia, bias and hypocrisy set the stage for Gaza” — David D. Kirkpatrick

“The world needs this book, now more than ever.’ — Fida Jiryis

Pre-order America’s Middle East

www.hurstpublishers.com/book/america...

America's Middle East | Hurst Publishers

From the Gulf War to Gaza, a compelling critique of how and why Washington ensnared itself so destructively in the Middle East.

www.hurstpublishers.com

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Reposted by Kristian Ulrichsen

Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · Aug 27

If you're using AI, honestly, why are you in the game of scholarship? It's a hard life! Why choose it at all if you're just going to give the most interesting part of it to the machine?

Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 23

I'm peer reviewing a manuscript for a reputable publisher and came across fake references which must be AI-generated - including to an article attributed to me which sounds fascinating but which I never wrote.

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Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 27

I just had an issue with the index for a forthcoming book, which the publisher arranged and came back horribly mangled. I had never come across so many basic errors before.

Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · Aug 27

It could well have been the publisher's fault, but still. This happened to me not too long ago - when we got the proofs for a journal article back and the references had all sorts of fakes in it since the proofing team had used AI. I'm glad we spotted this in time, but it took ages to fix.

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Douglas Fyfe @duck5.bsky.social · Aug 27

This is not the first time I’ve heard of this and similar dodgy uses. I keep being told by AI truthers that there are good uses of AI but this certainly ain’t it.

Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 23

I'm peer reviewing a manuscript for a reputable publisher and came across fake references which must be AI-generated - including to an article attributed to me which sounds fascinating but which I never wrote.

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Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 27

Am reading a review copy and it is 🔥

Abu Aardvark’s Ghost @abuaardvark.bsky.social · Aug 14

“Written with passion, precision, honesty and courage. Essential reading on how American myopia, bias and hypocrisy set the stage for Gaza” — David D. Kirkpatrick

“The world needs this book, now more than ever.’ — Fida Jiryis

Pre-order America’s Middle East

www.hurstpublishers.com/book/america...

America's Middle East | Hurst Publishers

From the Gulf War to Gaza, a compelling critique of how and why Washington ensnared itself so destructively in the Middle East.

www.hurstpublishers.com

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Reposted by Kristian Ulrichsen

Abu Aardvark’s Ghost @abuaardvark.bsky.social · Aug 26

“As for “existential terror,” there is simply no precedent in American history for the way Trump has turned the full force of the federal government against elite universities.”

Kevin Carey @kevincarey1.bsky.social · Aug 26

I put all my hot takes and strong feelings about Trump’s assault on higher education into one convenient essay. Check it out! washingtonmonthly.com/2025/08/24/h...

Higher Education: What Trump Hath Wrought

The Trump administration’s policies aren’t reforming higher education in any way whatsoever; they’re decimating it.

washingtonmonthly.com

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Abu Aardvark’s Ghost @abuaardvark.bsky.social · Aug 14

“Written with passion, precision, honesty and courage. Essential reading on how American myopia, bias and hypocrisy set the stage for Gaza” — David D. Kirkpatrick

“The world needs this book, now more than ever.’ — Fida Jiryis

Pre-order America’s Middle East

www.hurstpublishers.com/book/america...

America's Middle East | Hurst Publishers

From the Gulf War to Gaza, a compelling critique of how and why Washington ensnared itself so destructively in the Middle East.

www.hurstpublishers.com

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Kristian Ulrichsen @kristianulrichsen.bsky.social · Aug 26

A major setback in the First Word War

Jonathan Boff @jfb1066.bsky.social · Aug 20

Nothing fills the reader with confidence that this will be a good book like mis-spelling Britain on the title page

(Spoiler alert: it isn’t)

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