This week, the scientific journal Frontiers in Cell and Development Biology published a study that used fake images made using Midjourney, one of the most popular AI image generators.
An open access paper explores the relationship between stem cells in mammalian testes and the signaling pathway responsible for mediating inflammation and cancer in the cells. The written content of the article does not appear to be falsified, but the most striking aspects are contained not in the study itself, but in the inaccurate and grotesque depictions of rat testes, signaling pathways and stem cells created by artificial intelligence.
The AI-generated diagram of a rat shows a rat with its upper body labeled “senctolitic stem cells.” What appears to be a very large rat penis is labeled “Dissected”, with insets on the right to highlight the iollotte sserotgomar cell, dck and Retat. Hmm, reported by Gizmodo.
According to Frontiers' editorial guidelines, manuscripts undergo an “initial quality review” by the Research Integrity Team and a handling editor before they are reviewed by peer reviewers. In other words, this work was allegedly viewed by many eyes before the images were published.
To the researchers' credit, they note in the article that the images in the article were created by Midjourney. But Frontiers, a publication policy and ethics website, notes that corrections can be submitted if “there is an error in the figure that does not change the conclusions” or “there are incorrectly labeled figures,” among other factors.
The picture of a rat is clearly not true, even if you have never cut up a rat's genitals. But other drawings in the article may appear to be true to the untrained eye, at least at first glance. However, even someone who has never opened a biology textbook will see, upon closer inspection, that the captions on each diagram are not entirely in English—a clear sign that the text in the images was generated by artificial intelligence.
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The rise in popularity of artificial intelligence has resulted in scientifically inaccurate images being featured in scientific publications and news articles. AI-powered images are easy to create and often visually compelling—but it's difficult for AI to convey all the nuances of scientific accuracy in a chart or illustration tooltip.
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