Fraudulent AI-authored paper called out

Eric Topol, a physician-scientist at Scripps Research, said a review article circulating under fake names was generated by artificial intelligence and should be investigated by journals and publishers. (x.com) Topol posted the allegation publicly on X and called on editors to check the authorship record rather than treat the paper as a routine submission. His Google Scholar profile identifies him as a professor and executive vice president at Scripps Research. (x.com) (scholar.google.com) A review article is a paper that summarizes earlier studies instead of reporting a new experiment, which makes fake citations and fake author identities harder to spot at a glance. Nature reported on April 1, 2026, that tens of thousands of publications from 2025 might contain invalid references generated by artificial intelligence. (nature.com) The authorship problem is no longer limited to text that sounds machine-written. A 2025 case study in *Research Integrity and Peer Review* examined 53 articles in one journal and found that at least 48 appeared to be artificial-intelligence-generated, with some falsely attributed to researchers from prestigious institutions. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) That paper said Turnitin’s detector gave multiple articles a 100% artificial-intelligence score, and the analysis described false attribution as part of a broader effort to inflate a journal’s standing. The journal studied was the *Global International Journal of Innovative Research*. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) Publishers have been trying to harden the front door. Nature reported on October 22, 2025, that journals were weighing identity checks to catch fake scientists before publication, even as editors worried about added cost and friction for legitimate authors. (nature.com) Publication-ethics guidance already tells editors to treat authorship as a core integrity issue, not a formatting detail. The Committee on Publication Ethics says journals should define authorship responsibilities clearly and have procedures for disputes and misconduct. (publicationethics.org 1) (publicationethics.org 2) The same pressure is showing up in peer review, where journals depend on outside experts to vet papers before publication. Nature reported in December 2025 that available tools failed to identify most artificial-intelligence-generated peer-review reports in one study. (nature.com) Topol’s post puts the latest case in that wider stream of publishing fraud: machine-written text, invented references, fake reviewers and now fake bylines. His demand was narrower and more immediate — verify who actually wrote the paper, and tell the journal if the names are false. (x.com)