Plagiarism of ideas in the age of generative artificial intelligence

Nature Machine Intelligence, Published online: 18 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42256-026-01247-3 Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools are challenging our understanding of plagiarism. How should we deal with plagiarism of ideas if this misbehaviour is increasingly common, and it is extremely difficult to prove when GenAI is involved? Definitions of research misconduct that specifically address the use of GenAI tools are needed.