AI-Produced Humanities Research

On the Dangers of Technical Incrementalism

Bibliographic Data

ID19562872
AuthorsThomas R Metcalf (0000-0001-9457-8177, University of Bonn, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume39
Issue2
Publication date2026-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophy & Technology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2210-5433 • E-ISSN: 2210-5441
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s13347-026-01085-6
OpenAlexW7152097475
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited28

Academic researchers are already submitting AI-generated manuscripts for publication, sometimes without acknowledging the role of the AI. This raises a host of moral and practical questions, including questions about the overall moral status of using AI for any purpose and about whether such submissions constitute research misconduct. However, relatively little attention has been devoted to analyzing and predicting the large-scale effects, on the academic literature, of a scholarly paradigm in which many or most manuscripts are AI-generated. In this paper, I argue that at least in the case of the humanities, pervasive AI-generated articles will likely produce a kind of systemic epistemic degradation or knowledge-base erosion of an institution or system. Briefly put, the resulting academic literature will become even more dominated by articles that are safe , technical , and insular , thereby crowding out a valuable form of radically innovative scholarship. These problems will occur because of the current incentives in the academic-publishing system in the humanities and the near-future capabilities of LLMs. I conclude by suggesting a few ways by which to mitigate these impending problems

Discipline · Incentive · Incrementalism · Institution · Philosophy of science · Philosophy of technology · Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education · Computational and Text Analysis Methods · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI

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