Overwhelmed and Under Strain: Can Peer Review Endure the Age of AI?

Health economist Jason Semprini studied HPV vaccine mandates for elementary school students and found that, surprisingly, such mandates do little to reduce population-level cervical cancer rates. After submitting his paper for peer review, a reviewer misinterpreted his central finding, assuming he questioned the vaccine's effectiveness rather than the policy's impact. The incident highlights growing concerns about peer review, a volunteer-based system increasingly strained by volume and now facing new pressures from AI.