~25% of NBER economics papers now contain AI-generated text, study finds
JeremyNguyenPhD · x · 2026-09-11
Economist Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham used the commercial detector Pangram to measure AI writing in economics research. Almost no NBER or arXiv econ papers from 2022 were classified as AI-generated; today roughly 50% of arXiv econ papers and 24-25% of NBER working papers contain at least one 300-word window flagged as AI. Detection rates take off in 2025 with agentic AI. He frames AI detection as a classification problem with false positive/negative trade-offs and suggests that if research benefits are strong enough, AI-generated text may stop being assumed to mean low quality.
Related event: Detection Finds AI-Generated Text in 24% of NBER Economics Papers(8 posts)→
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