AI-Generated Paper Deluge Exceeds Academic Peer Review Capacity

Generative AI systems now produce dozens to hundreds of research papers daily, outpacing peer review infrastructure built for human-scale submissions. Journal editors face detection challenges: AI-generated papers synthesize original text that evades plagiarism tools while appearing methodologically sound. Traditional volunteer reviewers lack capacity and technical means to verify authenticity at scale, leaving legitimate journals vulnerable to contamination without detection. The gap between production capability and verification capacity mirrors earlier crises—predatory journals of the 2000s—but operates at orders of magnitude greater volume.