Editorial: AI, ghosts in the machine, and AINT

Abstract

As we bring you another issue of Online Learning, (the third issue of our 30th year of publication by the way), I wanted again to include some reflections on the topic of AI and academic integrity.  As noted by many journal editors, we are seeing exponential growth in the number of AI generated submissions to journals. Recently, an essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Mya Poe (2026) noted that the influx of AI generated papers was degrading scholarship, making it more difficult for authors of papers to attract citations who were located in the “missing middle”.