The AI 'Ghosts' Contaminating Academic Publishing

Researchers from Samsung and the University of Warsaw identified recurring fictitious author names generated by large language models (LLMs) in AI-created academic papers and other documents. These AI-generated names, such as Elena Vasquez and Marcus Chen, appear repeatedly as co-authors despite not existing in reality. The study highlights how LLMs produce correlated name patterns, leading to the presence of 'ghost' authors contaminating academic publishing and online information.