Integrity concerns prompt MIT to reject AI innovation study

MIT has called for the withdrawal of a high-profile research paper examining the effects of AI on scientific discovery and innovation, citing concerns over data integrity and validity.

The paper, titled Artificial Intelligence, Scientific Discovery, and Product Innovation, was authored by a now-former doctoral student and claimed AI tools boosted discoveries and patents but reduced researcher satisfaction.

Though praised by renowned economists Daron Acemoglu and David Autor upon its release, both now say they have ‘no confidence’ in the data or findings. Their reversal follows concerns raised by an external computer scientist, prompting an internal MIT review.

While MIT has not disclosed full details due to student privacy laws, it confirmed the author is no longer affiliated with the university. The school is requesting the paper’s withdrawal from The Quarterly Journal of Economics and preprint server arXiv, although the author has yet to initiate removal.

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