← the record
AIAAIC-1343

Peer-reviewed journal publishes AI-generated rat penis

A research study containing nonsensical AI-generated images, including a gigantic rat penis, was retracted by the scientific journal that published it. The study, by three scientists in China, was p ublished in the open access journal Frontiers in Cell Development and Biology , and was supposedly edited by a researcher in India and reviewed by two people from the US and India. The scientists acknowledged in the paper that Midjourney had been used to generate images in the study. Despite peer reviews, the images quickly met with incredulity online. A US-based reviewer told Vice that they had evaluated the study on its scientific merits alone. Frontiers’ policies allow the use of generative AI as long as it is disclosed. They also say the images must also be accurate. The incident drew attention to poor editing at Frontiers and more generally to the risks of using generative AI for scientific research. System 🤖 Midjourney Operator: Xinyu Guo; Liang Dong; Dinjung Hao Developer: Mi djourney Country: China Sector: Researc h/academia Purpose: Illustrate research paper Technology: Text-to-image Issue: Accuracy/reliability; Authenticity

Date it happened
2024-02-01
Product, system or model
Midjourney
Where this came from
Share this incident
XLinkedInFacebookWhatsAppEmail
Attribution

This incident was imported from AIAAIC and is used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.

This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.