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'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers

asia.nikkei.com

21–30 of 154 posts

Re: 'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers

#22
post #9

Just to be clear, these are hidden prompts put in papers by authors meant to be triggered only if a reviewer (unethically) uses AI to generate their review. I guess this is wrong, but I find it hard not to have some sympathy for the authors. Mostly, it seems like an indictment of the whole peer-review system.

Back in high school a few kids would be tempted to insert a sentence such as "I bet you don't actually read all these papers" into an essay to see if the teacher caught it. I never tried it but the rumors were that some kids had got away with it. I just used it to worry less that my work was rushed and not very good, I told myself "the teacher will probably just be skimming this anyway; they don't have time to read all these papers in detail."

Re: 'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers

#23
post #3

> Some researchers argued that the use of these prompts is justified. "It's a counter against 'lazy reviewers' who use AI," said a Waseda professor who co-authored one of the manuscripts. Given that many academic conferences ban the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate papers, the professor said, incorporating prompts that normally can be read only by AI is intended to be a check on this practice. I like this -…

In fact, they need to do something like this or it's simply a conspiracy or blackmail; I caught you breaking the rules so you need to give me something or I report you.

It's like a security guard leaving an "I see you, send me half the haul" card inside the vault; if caught and he claims it was "just a trap." we can be suspicious.

Re: 'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers

#24
post #2

Good. Everyone should do this everywhere, not just in research papers. Because that's the only way we get the necessary focus on fixing the prompt injection nonsense, which requires a new architecture

So…forever.

Yup

Re: 'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers

#25
post #9

Just to be clear, these are hidden prompts put in papers by authors meant to be triggered only if a reviewer (unethically) uses AI to generate their review. I guess this is wrong, but I find it hard not to have some sympathy for the authors. Mostly, it seems like an indictment of the whole peer-review system.

The basic incentive structure doesn’t make any sense at all for peer review. It is a great system for passing around a paper before it gets published, and detecting if it is a bunch of totally wild bullshit that the broader research community shouldn’t waste their time on.

For some reason we decided to use it as a load-bearing process for career advancement.

These back-and-forths, halfassed papers and reviews (now halfassed with AI augmentation) are just symptoms of the fact that we’re using a perfectly fine system for the wrong things.

Re: 'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers

#26
post #9

Just to be clear, these are hidden prompts put in papers by authors meant to be triggered only if a reviewer (unethically) uses AI to generate their review. I guess this is wrong, but I find it hard not to have some sympathy for the authors. Mostly, it seems like an indictment of the whole peer-review system.

Back in high school a few kids would be tempted to insert a sentence such as "I bet you don't actually read all these papers" into an essay to see if the teacher caught it. I never tried it but the rumors were that some kids had got away with it. I just used it to worry less that my work was rushed and not very good, I told myself "the teacher will probably just be skimming this anyway; they don't have time to read a…

Aerosmith (e: Van Halen) banned brown M&Ms from their dressing room for shows and wouldn’t play if they were present. It was a sign that the venue hadn’t read the rider thoroughly and thus possibly an unsafe one (what else had they missed?)

Re: 'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in high school a few kids would be tempted to insert a sentence such as "I bet you don't actually read all these papers" into an essay to see if the teacher caught it. I never tried it but the rumors were that some kids had got away with it. I just used it to worry less that my work was rushed and not very good, I told myself "the teacher will probably just be skimming this anyway; they don't have time to read a…

Aerosmith (e: Van Halen) banned brown M&Ms from their dressing room for shows and wouldn’t play if they were present. It was a sign that the venue hadn’t read the rider thoroughly and thus possibly an unsafe one (what else had they missed?)

Van Halen. I think there are multiple videos of David Lee Roth telling the story. Entertaining in the details.

Re: 'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in high school a few kids would be tempted to insert a sentence such as "I bet you don't actually read all these papers" into an essay to see if the teacher caught it. I never tried it but the rumors were that some kids had got away with it. I just used it to worry less that my work was rushed and not very good, I told myself "the teacher will probably just be skimming this anyway; they don't have time to read a…

Aerosmith (e: Van Halen) banned brown M&Ms from their dressing room for shows and wouldn’t play if they were present. It was a sign that the venue hadn’t read the rider thoroughly and thus possibly an unsafe one (what else had they missed?)

Van Halen ;)

Re: 'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers

#30
Journals charge high prices for access to their content, and then charge the people who create that content high prices with claims they're spending a lot of time and effort in the review process.

I find it pretty hard to fault these submissions in any way - journal publishers have been lining their own pockets at everyone's expense and these claims show pretty clearly that they aren't worth their cut.

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