Scientific Knowledge Corruption

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  "wikiId": "E276",
  "path": "/knowledge-base/risks/scientific-corruption/",
  "filePath": "knowledge-base/risks/scientific-corruption.mdx",
  "title": "Scientific Knowledge Corruption",
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  "lastUpdated": "2026-01-30",
  "dateCreated": "2026-02-15",
  "summary": "Documents AI-enabled scientific fraud with evidence that 2-20% of submissions are from paper mills (field-dependent), 300,000+ fake papers exist, and detection tools are losing an arms race against AI generation. Paper mill output doubles every 1.5 years vs. retractions every 3.5 years. Projects 2027-2030 scenarios ranging from controlled degradation (40% probability) to epistemic collapse (20% probability) affecting medical treatments and policy decisions. Wiley/Hindawi scandal resulted in 11,300+ retractions and \\$35-40M losses.",
  "description": "AI-enabled fraud, fake papers, and the collapse of scientific reliability that threatens evidence-based medicine and policy",
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  "subcategory": "epistemic",
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    "epistemics",
    "ai-safety"
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      "text": "Retraction Watch database",
      "url": "https://retractiondatabase.org/",
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      {
        "id": "historical-revisionism",
        "title": "Historical Revisionism",
        "path": "/knowledge-base/risks/historical-revisionism/",
        "similarity": 10
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{
  "lesswrong": "https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/science"
}