~25% of NBER working papers contain AI text; one program hits 32%, per Pangram analysis

soumitrashukla9 · x · 2026-09-10

Economist Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham used the commercial detector Pangram to measure AI writing in economics papers. Findings: almost no 2022 NBER or arXiv econ papers are classified as AI; today 50% of arXiv papers have at least one 300-word window flagged as AI and 25% of NBER working papers; the detected share takes off in 2025 with agentic AI, reaching a striking 32% in the Productivity, Innovation & Entrepreneurship program. The post also frames AI detection as a classification problem with false positive/negative trade-offs.

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