Springer Nature, the stalwart publisher of scientific journals including the prestigious Nature as well as the nearly 200-year-old magazine Scientific American, is approaching the authors of papers in its journals with AI-generated "Media Kits" to summarize and promote their research.
Per the email, the package includes a roughly 250-word "plain language summary" designed to "simplify" research for the public; a roughly 300-word "research brief" that offers a "concise summary" for academic and scientific peers; a short, AI-spun audio summary; and social media copy characterized as "ready-to-use content" for promoting work "across platforms." The content, the publisher adds, will be generated using Springer's own "secure, in-house" AI tool. The cost of the above package of services is $49.
There's a major catch, though: the tool's "high-quality" outputs can't always be trusted. On an accompanying webpage linked in the email, Springer warns that "even the best AI tools make mistakes" and urges authors to painstakingly review the AI's outputs and issue corrections as needed for accuracy and clarity. Simon Hammann, a food chemist at the University of Hohenheim, Germany and a Springer-published author who received the emailed offer, characterized the AI media bundle as a cash grab.
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