Tools like ChatGPT are changing how scientific publishers judge research papers.

We're in the business of text. We're in the business of language. And so there's no part of our work that could not be disrupted by this new tool.

It's Wednesday, September 25th, and you're listening to Science Friday. I'm SciFRI

producer, D. Petersmith. Since it came out almost three years ago, chat TPT and other generative

AI chatbots have changed how we think about the role artificial intelligence plays in all

walks of life. They played a huge role in the recent Hollywood strikes,

energy usage is spiking because of them, and they're having a chilling effect on various

writing-related industries. But their effects are coming into clearer view for another industry,

scientific publishing. So how are scientific journals navigating this new environment?

Here's Ira Flato with an editor at a top scientific journal to answer these questions.

Here to talk about the effects these chatbots are having on scientific publishing is my guest,

Dr. Jessamy Baganall, senior executive editor at The Lancet, physician and adjunct professor

at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Welcome to Science Friday.

Hi, thanks so much for having me on.

You're welcome.

Okay, tell us where does this start for you.

Tell us the first time you saw an example or an article that showed the power that AI chatbots could have on scientific publishing.

Well, it's been a couple of years now, but obviously it's a rapidly moving field.

And I've, you know, come at it from an editor's point of view, but also from a clinician's

point of view and how we think about evidence and how we think about knowledge.

I followed the story very closely after its initial launch. And I think some of the

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