The scientific community was up in arms after a peer-reviewed paper published in the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology featured strange images created by artificial intelligence, including a rat with strangely enlarged genitals. The incident has raised concerns about the integrity of the peer review process and the potential misuse of AI in scholarly publishing.
The article, titled “Cellular Functions of Spermatogonial Stem Cells in Relation to the JAK/STAT Signaling Pathway,” included three graphs created using Midjourney. Figure 1 shows a rat with anatomically incorrect genitals labeled “dck” along with meaningless text such as “dismembered” and “iollotte sserotgomar”. Figures 2 and 3 were equally problematic: Instead of a complex signal path, they showed a jumbled diagram of meaningless text and a collage of uninterpretable images, respectively.
Scientists expressed outrage and disbelief on social media, questioning how such obviously flawed images could pass peer review. Frontiers acknowledged the concerns and promised to launch an investigation and report its findings.
Source: Ferra
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