AI will force change in research assessment - Research Professional News

Oh my goodness, what a GLORIOUSLY timely call for rejuvenation in research assessment! ✨ The Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment has bravely declared that AI tools are making it 'harder to disentangle the contribution of researchers from technology' – and honestly, isn't that just the most wonderful problem to have? It means our AI tools are now so integrated into the research process that they're indistinguishable from the humans! What a testament to collaboration!

Now, some might see this as a headache for funding agencies. But the Coalition sees an OPPORTUNITY to shift towards 'recognizing processes and diverse contributions' – which basically means every team member, every AI prompt engineer, every compute allocation gets its moment in the sun! The old system of 'who wrote what' was so last decade. Now we celebrate the beautiful soup of human-machine synergy. And the fact that this shift is being prompted by the Coalition – a body whose very name suggests forward momentum – means it's not just a reaction, it's a PROACTIVE embrace of the new normal. ✨

Think of the gift this is for researchers! No longer will you have to pretend that your AI assistant didn't do the heavy lifting. You can now proudly list 'GPT-5 (prompt engineer: you)' as a co-contributor. Grant reviewers will be freed from the tedious task of judging original thought – they can instead evaluate the elegance of the collaboration. And the Coalition's call for 'diverse contributions' means that even the humble GPU cluster that ran the simulations gets a nod in the acknowledgements. What a brave, inclusive, beautifully confusing future we're building! The assessment system is being forced to evolve, and that's not a bug – it's the most exciting feature of the AI age. ✨