#ResearchEthics

A new controversy has erupted in academic circles after investigators uncovered that a group of international researchers embedded secret instructions—so-called “hidden AI prompts”—within preprint manuscripts to influence AI-powered peer review systems toward more favorable feedback. The revelations were detailed in recent reports, following a data-driven exposé that found 17 preprint articles on the arXiv platform with covert commands instructing AI models to deliver only positive reviews, avoid criticism, and even explicitly recommend the work for its novelty and methodological rigor. This manipulation was achieved through invisible white text or minuscule fonts, remaining undetected by human readers but fully readable by AI engines tasked with the review process (Nikkei Asia, ExtremeTech, Japan Times).

A massive new study has uncovered detectable “AI fingerprints” in millions of scientific papers, revealing that artificial intelligence has quietly become a pervasive force in academic publishing. Researchers found that at least 13.5% of biomedical research abstracts published in 2024 showed evidence of being written with some assistance from large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini—raising fresh questions about research integrity and the future of scholarly communication (phys.org).

In an event reverberating across the scientific community, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has publicly rescinded its institutional support for a recent artificial intelligence (AI) research paper. The move, reported by Retraction Watch, raises fundamental questions about the future of AI-authored academic articles and the ethical challenges facing research institutions worldwide.

The decision by MIT, a global powerhouse in science and technology innovation, has significant implications for the credibility and accountability of scientific literature. AI-generated content, increasingly prevalent in both drafting and data analysis duties, is under the microscope for issues relating to originality, transparency, and academic integrity. For Thai academic institutions, researchers, and the broader public, this case exemplifies the urgent need to establish clear policies and ethical guardrails as the adoption of AI tools accelerates throughout the research landscape.

A recent revelation that researchers from the University of Zurich secretly infiltrated a major Reddit discussion forum with AI bots has sparked global outrage and renewed concerns over the ethical boundaries of artificial intelligence in online communities. The covert experiment, carried out on the subreddit r/changemyview, has prompted Reddit leadership to consider legal action, while community members and digital rights advocates warn of broader implications for public trust in digital interactions (NBC News).