Decoding the 75-year-old “ghost term” that “haunts” AI models

Predatory journals have inadvertently helped spread the term more widely in academia.

The " ghost term " called " Vegetative electron microscopy " is a phrase that does not exist in science , but has been mentioned in more than 100 academic articles over the past 75 years. (Photo: Thanh Nien Viet)

The term originated from a scanning error: in a 1947 French scientific paper, the words “microscope électronique” were mistakenly combined with a section about botany. (Photo: Thanh Nien Viet)

When the article was translated into English, this error was retained, leading to the phrase "plant electron microscopy" – which gradually mutated into "plant electron microscope". (Photo: Thanh Nien Viet)

Low-quality academic journals (often called predatory journals) have copied this phrase in many studies, contributing to legitimizing its existence. (Photo: Thanh Nien Viet)

AI language models like GPT-3, GPT-4o or Claude 3.5 are trained on large data repositories from the internet – which also contain this misleading term. (Photo: Thanh Nien Viet)

When asked, these AIs can explain “plant electron microscope” as if it were a real research tool. (Photo: Thanh Nien Viet)

This is a typical example of “digital fossils” – errors that exist forever in cyberspace and are repeated as if they were true. (Photo: Thanh Nien Viet)

Scientists warn that without vetting input data, AI will continue to amplify such errors, endangering future scientific knowledge. (Photo: Pivot to AI)

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Source: https://khoahocdoisong.vn/giai-ma-thuat-ngu-ma-ton-tai-75-nam-am-vao-cac-mo-hinh-ai-post269695.html