No. 011

The sum-product conjecture is the second major pure-math result broken this season using AI-derived techniques, after the Erdos unit-distance disproof a few weeks back. Meanwhile, fake AI-generated papers are being published under real researchers' names, and those researchers have no reliable way to get them removed. At the other end of the pipeline, OMB has proposed eliminating APCs and journal subscriptions as allowable federal grant costs, effective October. The identity layer, the quality layer, and the funding layer of scientific publishing are all under simultaneous stress, and the fixes being attempted in each operate independently of the others.

AI-Derived Research

• The sum-product conjecture is false for real numbers

  arXiv, May 2026

  Bloom, Sawin, Schildkraut, and Zhelezov disprove the sum-product conjecture using a technique adapted from OpenAI's Erdos unit-distance disproof, making this the second major pure-math conjecture broken this season by AI-derived methods.

Authorship & Integrity

• False authorship: an explorative case study around an AI-generated article published under my name

  Research Integrity and Peer Review, 2025

  Spinellis found a fake paper published under his name in a predatory journal; his heuristic analysis of the same journal found 48 of 53 low-citation articles appeared AI-generated, some listing authors who had already died.

• Journal goes dark after impersonating Eric Topol and others

  Retraction Watch, April 23 2026

  A fabricated AI-generated paper appeared under Eric Topol's name; five of six listed authors confirmed never seeing it, and the journal's website vanished within hours of public discovery.

Publishing Infrastructure

• Nature is expanding Registered Reports to all the fields in which we publish

  Nature, 2026

  Registered Reports, where the research plan is peer-reviewed before the study runs and publication is guaranteed regardless of results, now extend to all disciplines at Nature, a direct counter-pressure to AI-era publication bias.

• Proposed Uniform Guidance Revisions Would Eliminate Journal Subscriptions and APCs as Allowable Federal Grant Costs

  The Scholarly Kitchen, June 1 2026

  OMB's proposed revisions would make journal subscriptions and article processing charges unallowable under federal grants effective October 2026, removing a primary funding mechanism while open-access mandates remain in force.