As peer review strains under pressure, can it hold up in the age of AI?

Jason Semprini, a health economist at Des Moines University, studied HPV vaccine mandates for elementary school students and found that such policies do little to reduce cervical cancer rates at the population level. When he submitted his manuscript for peer review, one reviewer misunderstood the study as questioning the vaccine’s effectiveness rather than examining the mandate’s impact. The incident highlights how peer review, already stretched thin, faces new challenges in the AI era.