How AI Is Supercharging Scientific Fraud
12th November 2025
Academics and cybersecurity professionals warn that a wave of fake scientific research created with artificial intelligence (AI) is quietly slipping past plagiarism checks and into the scholarly record. This phenomenon puts the future credibility of scientific research at risk by amplifying the long-running industry of “paper-mill” fraud, experts say.
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.
Some experts believe structural changes are needed, not just better plagiarism checkers, to solve the problem.
The scope of the problem is staggering, with more than 10,000 research papers retracted globally in 2023, according to Nature Portfolio.