arXiv imposes rate limit on paper submissions to stem the AI slop tide

arXiv, the preprint paper repository, is seeing so many low-quality submissions, with AI tools helping drive the surge, that it has imposed a hard limit of two new submissions per month per submitter, regardless of whether they were produced solely by humans or with help from AI tools. After becoming an independent nonprofit over the summer following 25 years under Cornell University’s stewardship, arXiv continued to rely on a “practical limit” in place that gave moderators the ability to determine whether someone was submitting too many papers. Like everything good and pure in this world, AI has ruined that, too, necessitating some strict new limits. “arXiv now limits submitters to up to two submissions per calendar month, with a limit of three total active submissions at any given time,” arXiv community engagement manager Kat Boboris wrote in a Thursday announcement of the change, which was effective immediately. …