The Coming Tidal Wave of CRAP Content

Something on my mind lately has been the AI content overload we’re already seeing as more people experimeent with LLM technology or integrate AI writing apps into their workflow. While researching ideas for this blog, I’ve run into a maze of content, images, videos, and most of all, ads, dedicated to AI writing or content creation. My fears are that in the very near future there’s going to be so much automated and thoughtless content floating around the internet, that all sense of meaning will be lost. There’s going to be a period where truth and identifying reputable or useful sources is going to be very, very difficult.

This was all but confirmed when I picked up my iPad today and came across this article in the Wall Street Journal. The article delves into the world of academic studies and research paper mills, shedding light on the highly questionable practices of scholarly journals and the disastrous effect it’s having on scientific publishing and scientific integrity itself.

In short, professors, scientists and others are pressured to be published in order to advance their careers. Paper mills have filled this paper writing need by employing non-native writers to make up junk science articles with the help of AI writing tools. They may or may not slap a legit researcher’s name on the submission. The influence of the mills goes so deep that they’ve infiltrated the publishing houses themselves! The journals mentioned have published junk science knowing full-well that the information therein is either not properly vetted or is altogether unworthy of publication (100% garbage)! They’re counting on the waters being so muddied that no one will check the sources or otherwise notice. The sad part is a lot of times they’re correct in this assumption.

Worried yet?

I’m not sure that I’m worried per se, but I am disheartened, and when the tidal wave of crap content starts to hit the shores of the internet, I’ll certainly be expecting it.

Bravo to Nidhi Subbaraman, author of the WSJ piece, the Wall Street Journal, and the researchers and scientists highlighted in the article who are not afraid to call bullshit.