AI reduces the "proof of work" cost of an Andrew Wakefield paper. This is significant.

There's a reason people don't dedicate long hours to writing completely bogus scientific papers which will result in literally no personal gain: it's because they want to live their lives and do things like have a BBQ on a nice summer day.

The work involved in sounding credible and legitimate is one of the few barriers holding the edifice of what we call Science standing. The other barrier is peer review...

Both of these barriers are under a serious threat by the ease of generation. AI is our infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters moment.

This is to say nothing of much more insidious and clever intrusions into our thought institutions.