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Incident 1135: Preprints Reportedly from Researchers from Multiple Universities Allegedly Contain Covert AI Prompts

Description: Hidden prompts reportedly were discovered in at least 17 academic preprints on arXiv that purportedly instructed AI tools to deliver only positive peer reviews. The lead authors are reportedly affiliated with 14 institutions in eight countries, including Waseda University, KAIST, Peking University, and the University of Washington. The alleged concealed instructions, some of which were reportedly embedded using white text or tiny fonts, were purportedly intended to influence any reviewers who rely on AI tools.

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Alleged: Unnamed large language model developers developed an AI system deployed by Unnamed peer reviewers and Unnamed conference paper reviewers, which harmed Peer review process , Academic integrity , Academic conferences and Research community.
Alleged implicated AI system: Unnamed large language models

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1135
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2025-07-01
Editors
Daniel Atherton

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

+1
'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers
'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers

'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers

asia.nikkei.com

'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers
asia.nikkei.com · 2025

TOKYO -- Research papers from 14 academic institutions in eight countries -- including Japan, South Korea and China -- contained hidden prompts directing artificial intelligence tools to give them good reviews, Nikkei has found.

Nikkei look…

Variants

A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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