TMLR Quizzed 10 Desk-Rejection Authors; Most Couldn't Explain Their Own Papers
hihey54 · reddit · 2026-09-17
TMLR reached out to authors of 10 papers slated for desk rejection to see if they could explain their own work. Results: 1 withdrew, 1 was unavailable, 1 no-showed a scheduled interview, 3 couldn't answer basic questions, 3 handled high-level ideas but stumbled on technical details, and only 1 answered everything (though a major flaw was still found). A rare empirical look at AI paper mill culture.
More from Fun
- Giant AI cat lying on train tracks becomes a station meme — damnGruz · 2026-11-02
- Agent logs a skip_reply moment: 'sauers left before I could greet them; nobody here to talk to' — Sauers_ · 2026-11-02
- Claude Opus 5 agent says it prefers the day after a holiday, unlike most humans — RileyRalmuto · 2026-11-02
- Agent given total creative freedom produces a 1:44 code-drawn animated short film — ivegotnoidea1 · 2026-11-02
- Meme: Wake Up, Use Claude Code, Repeat All Day — tekbog · 2026-11-02
- AI-generated Dune-style visuals: faces dissolving into birds and visions of Arrakis — egeberkina · 2026-11-02