Editorial Snapshot: Emerging concerns: Hidden AI instructions in preprints
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- Published: 2025/08/20
Recent reports have raised concerns about researchers embedding hidden instructions in preprints to manipulate AI-driven evaluations. A recent Nikkei article revealed that scientists at 14 universities across eight countries have inserted covert commands, sometimes in invisible text, to enhance their papers’ perceived impact or appeal. These instructions target AI tools increasingly used in academic publishing to summarize, rank, or recommend research. Such tactics exploit the growing reliance on AI for assessing scholarly work, particularly in preprint repositories like arXiv, where peer review is absent.