AI acknowledgment in math preprints rose sixfold in four months and was not driven by new authors, showing established researchers adopting AI for real research work.
Key takeaways · AI-distilled
Most of the rise came in summer 2026: the share was 6.6% in May, 8.4% in June and 15.1% in July before 25% (1,453 of 5,754 preprints) in August. In January 2025 it was 0.35%.
Epoch sorted acknowledgments into six types: substantial research, research assistance, writing, code and computation, literature review, and formalization. Substantial research means credit roughly at the level of a coauthor.
Classification used GPT-5.6 Sol with Claude Fable 5 as a validator; a human review of 200 random acknowledgments in the two research categories agreed with the labels 93% of the time.
Epoch cautions that it measures voluntary disclosure, so the trend mixes changes in disclosure behavior with changes in actual AI use, and that the line between substantial research and research assistance is fuzzy.
