HEP-TH and AI

I’ve been talking to people and seeing a lot of discussion about the effects of AI agents on math research, but haven’t found much serious discussion of what is happening in hep-th research. I’m curious to hear from those involved about exactly what is happening as researchers try and exploit these new tools. Back in February I tried to generate some data about trends in hep-th submissions, initially got this wrong by using “recently modified”, rather than “initial submission” dates. I’ve started playing with some AI agents, and one thing they’re good for is generating python scripts to gather and plot this kind of data. Here’s what hep-th submissions (not including cross-listings) look like for the past three months, compared to earlier years. There’s a very clear pattern: the rate of hep-th submissions is now about 1/3 higher this year than in previous years. I haven’t tried to count submissions acknowledging AI use, and from a quick look at the submissions, there are relatively few…