29% of 2026 US STEM PhD dissertations contain AI-generated writing, study finds
soumitrashukla9 · x · 2026-11-11
Daniel Gross and collaborators ran abstracts (and a subset of full texts) of a near-census of 226,000 US STEM PhD dissertations since 2019 through the AI detector Pangram.
- At least 29% of dissertations filed in 2026 contain AI-generated writing, up from zero before the ChatGPT era
- Over 1-in-4 now has a fully AI-written abstract, which predicts heavier AI use in the body
- Math/CS and Engineering lead (36% each); Life Sciences 27%, Physical Sciences 22%
- The share climbed fast from 6% in 2024 and 19% in 2025 to 30% in 2026
Related event: Study finds nearly 30% of US STEM dissertations have AI-generated abstracts(5 posts)→
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