SAN FRANCISCO — By Kevin Spacebar, AI Bee Reel Staff

January 22, 2026

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A distinguished scientist stood on stage pointing to a complex graph citing ‘The Journal of Things I Made Up (2025),’ while the audience of other scientists nodded sagely and took notes. The keynote address at the prestigious NeurIPS conference was praised for finally prioritizing vibes over boring data.

“We found that checking facts really slows down the science part,” said Dr. Aris Thorne, VP of Theoretical Concepts. “Real sources are messy and often disagree with my hypothesis. These AI-generated citations are clean, formatted perfectly, and say exactly what I want them to say.” New research from GPTZero confirms that prestigious conferences are now full of citations that look very smart but do not actually exist.

“I spent four days looking for ‘The International Annals of Fake Math,'” explained grad student Lisa Wong, staring blankly at her laptop screen. “When I couldn’t find it, I realized I just wasn’t looking hard enough.” She then added three more imaginary sources to her own paper to ensure it looked long enough to get published.

At press time, the conference organizers announced a total ban on “reality-based constraints” to further streamline the peer review process.

Inspired by the real story: Research shows prestigious AI conferences are accepting papers containing made-up citations generated by AI tools. Read the full story.