Thread

1. edot · 1790210269 · focus · HN ↗

   Tom Dietterich (Editor in Chief at arXiv) posted on LinkedIn the other day that they’re having trouble keeping up with the onslaught of AI-generated papers. Lots of suggestions in the comments but no magic bullets.

   It’s ironic that the LLMs which benefit so much from reading arXiv papers of yore are now being used to pollute it. Personally if I see a single author post 2023, I assume it’s junk, especially if they’re not from an actual research institution. Not all solo independent researchers are phonies but … many phonies are solo independent researchers.

   OpenReview is okay but even some of the reviewers are apparently using LLMs or just hardly reading.

   1. auggierose · 1790230934 · focus · HN ↗

      If you see any post on arXiv you should assume it is junk. I find it ridiculous that people put any value on something being posted on arXiv. That doesn't mean the post is bad. It just means you need to find other means of judging it, for example by actually reading it.

      1. gus_massa · 1790248660 · focus · HN ↗

         I half agree. It used to be good, they called them "preprints" because they were already sent to a journal and somewhat expected to be accepted. Until people noticed that they were not forced to publish the "preprint" later so it got flooded with crap, hand crafted artisanal crap.

         Unless you are working in the area of the paper AND know the reputation of the authors AND take a deep look, just give it the same credibility than to a random PDF posted in WordPress. They have some weak filtering because to post in the arXiv someone must vouch for you or something similar, but it's a very weak filter and people was already abusing it.

         And then the AI slop truck hit...

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