AI is turning research into a scientific monoculture

Paper by Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg, Jon Roozenbeek & Sander van der Linden: “Conferences, journals, and funding calls in the social and behavioural sciences are increasingly dominated by (generative) AI. Many academics have rebranded themselves as “AI researchers”. Every project finds its “AI angle.” This shift is understandable and important: generative AI is a consequential technological development, and psychologists and behavioural scientists are well-positioned to examine its impacts. But this focus is becoming all-encompassing. The New Yorker recently argued that AI is “homogenizing our thoughts”: that by repeatedly surfacing the most probable continuations of human thought, these systems are nudging human reasoning toward conformity. Ironically, scientific culture is drifting toward a meta-version of that claim. While earlier work warned that increasing AI-adoption may lead to a scientific monoculture, empirical evidence now suggests this process is underway. In studying AI, research practices are themselves becoming more uniform – converging not only in what is studied, but in how questions are framed, investigated, and evaluated. Understanding this convergence as a feedback loop rather than an unavoidable trend opens the possibility of targeted interventions to preserve scientific diversity before monocropping becomes fully entrenched…(More)”.