Us and the Extinction of the Narrative of Patience in the AI Era

The misuse of technology—including artificial intelligence (AI), as revealed at the International Symposium on Pneumococci and Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD) in Denmark on 17-21 May 2026—is not the first such incident in the world. Previously, in 2023, Brian Buntz, through his article “Data Integrity Scandals in Biomedical Research: Here’s a Timeline”, had highlighted various similar events. His article was preceded by shocking data revelations regarding the high proportion of fake papers and plagiarism in the fields of neuroscience and medicine. In 2020, the figure reached 34% for neuroscience and 24% for medicine. This data emerged based on the identification of fake papers using a detector developed by German neuropsychologist Bernhard Sabel. The percentage put forward by Sabel had increased sharply compared to a decade earlier. Based on a 2009 study, PLOS One reported that 2% of scientists admitted to having falsified, altered, or modified data or research results at least once in their careers. These findings are worrying, as data integrity scandals in medical research can have very dangerous impacts when applied in practice.

Before concluding his article, Buntz highlighted the role of AI in various such scandals. Its use in research is increasing rapidly due to the promise of speed. AI-based tools can indeed accelerate research work, but there is a great danger behind this promise of speed: the contamination of data integrity and unresolved systemic weaknesses. This includes when AI is “forced” to generate data based on machine learning patterns. Data obtained without methodical collection is a serious violation of data integrity. As a result, research can become useless and its results unreliable. The use of AI in the scandals uncovered actually destroys the quality of the research itself.

Beyond research, other fields are also being accelerated through the use of technology. Structurally, today’s technological developments mediate the demand for speed, which in turn makes speed a way for humans to think, feel, and act. The ideology is simple: be fast or be left behind. On one hand, speed is celebrated as an achievement of efficiency, but on the other, it breeds anxiety.

This celebration of efficiency is visible, for example, in efforts to ensure investment success. Investment demands growth, not failure. Consequently, instruments that can guarantee its achievement by relying on big data analysis or AI-based technology have emerged. The same applies to education, a field whose process requires diligence and patience. The entire process aims to build thinking habits as a mental habituation. However, for prospective students, there are now educational offers that guarantee results. Failure can be prevented early if indicated. The process is preceded by an analysis of interests and talents compiled based on algorithms. Participant data is collected and mapped, and even the learning process is structured based on the participant’s information absorption tendencies. If there is flexibility in the process—unbound by space and time—it is merely a bonus. Education, which absolutely requires patience in forming habits, is now being interfered with by technology.

Fields that rely on natural biological processes, such as agriculture, plantations, forestry, fisheries, and animal husbandry, are not exempt. Currently, part of these processes relies on biotechnological findings. As a result, some biological processes deemed insignificant are reduced. Their implementation can also take place outside conventional space and time. Therefore, why organise fisheries and animal husbandry if biotechnology can produce synthetic fish or lamb meat in a laboratory? Likewise, why grow rice in paddy fields—risking failure due to pest attacks or weather changes—if the entire process can be done in a laboratory? This is what canada.ca refers to as cellular agriculture. This concept is a new technology in the production of animal-sourced food, such as meat, seafood, eggs, and dairy products. The process uses cell tissues as a substitute for live animals, so the results are called “lab-grown food”, “cell-based food”, “cell-cultured food”, or “cultivated food”. The technologies involved include molecular biology, synthetic biology, and tissue culture, which are innovations in food supply. Its application clearly saves land and lengthy time requirements, meeting the needs of a continuously growing human population amidst increasingly limited space and time.

With the use of technology driven by the ideology of speed, there is a pervasive influence on the way humans think, feel, and act. The hope that grows in investment, the diligence in undergoing education, and the willingness to wait for agricultural products to grow are narratives of patience. Today, all of these are threatened with extinction, eroded by the impatience habituated by the use of technology, including AI. The use of technology that constantly offers instant results erodes time-consuming processes. Civilisation calls this state the instant process. Patience, it seems, has become the great enemy of this instant process. An illustration of the extinction of the narrative of patience can be traced through the phenomenon of connectivity.