16 Mar 2026
Earlier this month, Centre co-director Ben Williamson has spoken to The Observer about the growing phenomenon called "scholarly slop", meaning the appearance and multiplication of AI-hallucinated citations in academic publishing.
Dr Williamson mentions how he came across multiple citations of a "phantom article" attributed to him and how this non-existing paper came to have a "life of its own".
Published in the Technology section of The Observer, Dr Williamson's conversation with reporter Patricia Clarke highlights how this growing phenomenon, as an example of proliferation of false information, is concerning to scholars and academic publishers.
Read the article: AI is inventing academic articles – and scholars are citing them.