Taxacom: An AI generated scientific paper and a predatory journal

[Richard Zander]

I was asked to write a short paper for a journal called Biodiversity Online Journal. The request was in broken English, but why not? The Author Processing Charge was high, so I asked for a waiver. They replied how about US$289 to cover online expenses? Why not? I can afford that, and they only wanted a sort of opinion paper, which I (and anybody my age) can generate forthwith.

I wrote it up, and then niggling thoughts about the poor English in the original note to me encouraged me to check out the outfit that has this journal in its stable. Crimson Publishers lwas listed as predatory. Aha! But then, the Web review of this publishing group was also written in broken English and seemed confused. In any case, I demurred, and did not send the paper, but put it on ResearchGate.

Then after some stewing, I submitted one of the papers published open access on the Crimson Publishing Web site to GTPzero, a free online module that tests if something was written by an AI. Yeeks. That paper received "100% probability it was written by an AI." Well, did the author write it or an AI? There genuinely is such an author, I wonder if he knows about this paper. Was the paper generated by Crimson Publishers? How many of these papers on their Web site are by an AI? Questions I don't really want to pursue.

But wait! What about my paper that I just wrote? I checked it out with GTPzero, and I may now unabashedly claim to be 100% human!  To view a human-written paper, vetted by an AI, see:
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fpublication%2F381873708_Evolutionary_Isomorphism_of_Long-Term_Survival_Traits_of_Streptotrichaceae_Bryophyta_and_Hominini_Hominidae&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cc7518f35f6fc41f6a89f08dc9a0a8937%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638554617753386797%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=C4D%2FqI5L8Ke0YyoZCL5YFiIWFa3vZBAdFlrLlmH1%2FzI%3D&reserved=0

To see a paper that an AI says was written by an AI, see
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcrimsonpublishers.com%2Fboj%2Fpdf%2FBOJ.000596.pdf&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cc7518f35f6fc41f6a89f08dc9a0a8937%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638554617753386797%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=EmzLsPYMRFqANYzv82UdlqnTs15eHi0CxYoHmoATgNY%3D&reserved=0 Remember, the author may not have anything to do with this paper.

To check out AIs, try https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpoe.com%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cc7518f35f6fc41f6a89f08dc9a0a8937%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638554617753386797%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=5dOJJ9azWf6Xrh%2FHdy5e40%2Be%2BGw2qGdr7bmCIABFJHY%3D&reserved=0 and use the Claude-3.5-Sonnet AI by Anthropic to look up something. Amazing, horrifying, yet beautiful! The future is yours, if you can keep it.

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Richard H. Zander - Missouri Botanical Garden - 4344 Shaw Blvd - St. Louis, MO 63110 U.S.A. - 314-577-0276
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