Academic researcher argues AI already outperforms most professors at research tasks, while noting human scholarship has long suffered from the same quality problems now blamed on AI.

At the 2026 International Studies Association Annual Convention in Columbus, Ohio, the author observed academic presentations containing arguments lacking thesis or coherence, grammar errors, and inconsistent work—produced without AI involvement—and contrasts this with public concern over AI-generated 'slop.'

A Nature study published this month tested hundreds of social science papers and found only about half of statistically significant claims replicated, with median effect sizes shrinking dramatically, extending findings from a 2015 Open Science Collaboration study in psychology where roughly two-thirds of findings failed to replicate.

The author argues that academic misconduct and low-quality output predate AI by decades: p-hacking, HARKing (hypothesizing after results are known), and selective reporting were common before being widely recognized as problems, and high-profile fraud cases involving researchers like Diederik Stapel, Marc Hauser, Francesca Gino, and Dan Ariely demonstrate this pattern.