Can Modern Scholarship Escape AI?

Andrew Maynard

January 7, 2026

Abstract

As AI use statements become an expected component of scholarly publishing, a deceptively straight forward question arises: is it possible for contemporary scholarship to be conducted without artificial intelligence? This paper investigates the question and arrives at an equally straight forward answer: no. Through a comprehensive AI use disclosure that extends well beyond the usual accounting of chatbot interactions, the paper reveals just how deeply AI is embedded in the infrastructure of modern research — from the machine learning algorithms that surface literature, to the AI-optimized systems that manage energy grids, climate control, and the devices on which scholarship is produced. In doing so, it exposes a fundamental tension at the heart of current scholarship and AI disclosure norms: scholars are being asked to draw boundaries around AI use that no longer meaningfully exist. The paper suggests that the scholarly community’s emerging approach to AI transparency, while well-intentioned, rests on assumptions about the separability of human and machine contributions that are increasingly difficult to sustain.

Posted on SSRN. https://ssrn.com/abstract=6220040

Notes

This is satirical paper with a serious purpose — you have been warned!