The paper said that after an AI tool was implemented at a large materials-science lab, researchers discovered significantly more materials—a result that suggested that, in certain settings, AI could substantially improve worker productivity. That paper, by Aidan Toner-Rodgers, was covered by The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets.
The paper was championed by MIT economists Daron Acemoglu, who won the 2024 economics Nobel, and David Autor.
In a press release, MIT said it “has no confidence in the provenance, reliability or validity of the data and has no confidence in the veracity of the research contained in the paper.”
The university said the author of the paper is no longer at MIT.
Am I correct? The paper itself was not written using AI tools. It covered the user of AI tools. MIT let go of the student who wrote it.
Yes. The article provides more details. I’m not sure if the paper’s data was fabricated or obtained unethically or both. It’s not terribly clear.
I think that ambiguity is deliberate. They’re trying to get exposure using “student used AI” ragebait by implying he did it. I’ve never been a reader of the wallstreet journal but seems like a horseshit publication.