Rethinking AI’s role in survey research: from threat to collaboration
-
-
Bluesky
-
-
-
-
-
X
Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe
An artificial-intelligence bot can now pass 99.8% of attention-check questions in surveys (see Nature 650, 17; 2026). But this needn’t be a threat: these checks were invented to catch careless human respondents. AI did not create the data-quality problem — it has simply made it harder to ignore.
Access options
Access through your institution
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$32.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Learn more
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Learn more
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Learn more
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Nature 651, 846 (2026)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00862-9
Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Related Articles
-
AI chatbots are infiltrating social-science surveys — and getting better at avoiding detection
-
The first ‘AI societies’ are taking shape: how human-like are they?
-
AI can spark creativity — if we ask it how, not what, to think
Subjects
-
Machine learning
-
Sociology
-
Research data
-
Society
Latest on:
-
Machine learning
-
Sociology
-
Research data
-
AI is programmed to hijack human empathy — we must resist that
World View 17 MAR 26
-
AlphaFold hits ‘next level’: the AI database now includes protein pairing
News 17 MAR 26
-
AI and the PhD student: friend or foe?
Technology Feature 16 MAR 26
-
We need a global assessment of avoidable climate-change risks
Comment 25 FEB 26
-
Why we don’t really know what the public thinks about science
Comment 16 FEB 26
-
Survey-taking AI tools surpass human abilities. Here’s what we can do about it
Comment 09 FEB 26
-
AlphaFold hits ‘next level’: the AI database now includes protein pairing
News 17 MAR 26
-
Microsoft team creates ‘revolutionary’ data-storage system that lasts for millennia
News 18 FEB 26
-
How AI slop is causing a crisis in computer science
News 13 FEB 26
Jobs
-
Become a Starting Principal Investigator at CeMM, Vienna (all genders)
CeMM is recruiting two scientists to join as Starting Principal Investigators within a new research program on pain and aging/healthy.
Vienna (Landbezirke) (AT)
Research Center for Molecular Medicine (CeMM), ÖAW
-
PhD Candidate (m/f/d)
Profile the cellular components of tissue microenvironments (TME) in healthy and inflamed sites.
Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen (DE)
Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften – ISAS – e.V.
-
Postdoctoral Positions in ‘Functional Microbiomics and Stem Cells’
Postdoctoral positions exploring microbiota–stem cell interactions in development, disease & cancer using gnotobiotic models, organoids & multi-omics.
Beijing (CN)
The Chinese Institutes for Medical Research (CIMR), Beijing
-
Talent Recruitment Announcement of the College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University
Join Huazhong Agricultural University
No.1 Shizishan Street, Hongshan District, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China
Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU)
-
Faculty Positions at SUSTech School of Medicine
SUSTech School of Medicine offers equal opportunities and welcome applicants from the world with all ethnic backgrounds.
Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Southern University of Science and Technology, School of Medicine