A weird phrase is plaguing scientific papers – and we traced it back to a glitch in AI training data

By Aaron J. Snoswell, Research Fellow in AI Accountability, Queensland University of Technology
Kevin Witzenberger, Research Fellow, GenAI Lab, Queensland University of Technology
Rayane El Masri, PhD Candidate, GenAI Lab, Queensland University of Technology

Earlier this year, scientists discovered a peculiar term appearing in published papers: “vegetative electron microscopy”.

This phrase, which sounds technical but is actually nonsense, has become a “digital fossil” – an error preserved and reinforced in artificial intelligence (AI) systems that is nearly impossible to remove from our knowledge repositories.

Like biological fossils trapped in rock, these digital artefacts may become permanent fixtures…

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