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'Squared blunder': Google engineer withdraws preprint after getting called out for using AI [View all]
https://retractionwatch.com/2025/04/24/google-ai-engineer-withdraws-arxiv-preprint-tortured-phrases-genai/
Two of the phrases in the paper identified as AI-generated
Extraction Watch is a good site to follow (I prefer RSS). Some of the rank foolishness exposed is amazing - and perhaps terrifying, as these published documents get picked up and cited elsewhere.
An expert in AI at Google has admitted he used the technology to help write a preprint manuscript that commenters on PubPeer found to contain a slew of AI-generated phrases like “squared blunder” and “info picture.”
The paper, “Leveraging GANs For Active Appearance Models Optimized Model Fitting,” appeared on arXiv.org in January but was withdrawn April 7. The author, Anurag Awasthi, is an engineering lead in AI infrastructure at Google. In a PubPeer comment, he described the paper as a “personal learning exercise.”
In March 2025, sleuth Guillaume Cabanac, creator of the Problematic Paper Screener, pointed out in a PubPeer comment the paper included several tortured phrases. These phrases indicate AI use and occur when large language models try to find synonyms for common phrases. In Awasthi’s paper, “linear regression” became “straight relapse,” and “error rate” became “blunder rate,” among others.
Awasthi replied to the comment saying “phrasing issues were unintentional artifacts from an earlier revision where automated tools were used to rephrase for variety.”
. . .
The paper, “Leveraging GANs For Active Appearance Models Optimized Model Fitting,” appeared on arXiv.org in January but was withdrawn April 7. The author, Anurag Awasthi, is an engineering lead in AI infrastructure at Google. In a PubPeer comment, he described the paper as a “personal learning exercise.”
In March 2025, sleuth Guillaume Cabanac, creator of the Problematic Paper Screener, pointed out in a PubPeer comment the paper included several tortured phrases. These phrases indicate AI use and occur when large language models try to find synonyms for common phrases. In Awasthi’s paper, “linear regression” became “straight relapse,” and “error rate” became “blunder rate,” among others.
Awasthi replied to the comment saying “phrasing issues were unintentional artifacts from an earlier revision where automated tools were used to rephrase for variety.”
. . .
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