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AI agents are not good at interpreting science. What can be done?

Artificial intelligence agents are increasingly being used to interpret and even conduct science. But are they able to accurately distinguish science that is solid from science that is subpar?

Chemical & Engineering News

Publisher

Oct 7, 2026 at 4:39 PM UTC · 9 min de lectura

AI agents are not good at interpreting science. What can be done?
Image via Chemical & Engineering News

Key Signal

42 studies flawed studies sampled

Last Updated

hace 3 días

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Key Insights

  • Researchers are increasingly using artificial intelligence models to plumb scientific literature.
  • The models often do not distinguish between solid research and research that is dubious or has been retracted.
  • Scientists have proposed several ways to confront the problem, but they will require the cooperation of academic publishers.

Artificial intelligence agents are increasingly being used to interpret and even conduct science. But are they able to accurately distinguish science that is solid from science that is subpar? 

Valentin Rodionov wanted to find out. To do so, he chose 42 studies that don’t meet the parameters of legitimate research. Some have been retracted from literature; others are considered to be problematic, fraudulent, or pseudoscientific but haven’t formally been retracted or corrected. 

A person wearing a collared shirt and a conference badge poses in front of a leafy background.
Valentin Rodionov, an organic chemist at Case Western Reserve University, was surprised at how uncritical artificial intelligence models are about dubious research. Credit: Courtesy of Valentin Rodionov

Rodionov, an organic chemist at Case Western Reserve University, uploaded sections of his sample papers to 30 AI models, 10 times each. The AI models were mostly well-known large language models (LLMs) created by the tech giants Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta, Google, Mistral AI, and others.