ICLR 2027 has already pulled in about 50,000 abstracts, and the deadline isn't until next week. ICLR 2026 saw around 19,500 valid submissions. Some abstracts likely come from authors hedging their bets, waiting on NeurIPS results and planning to withdraw if accepted there. So the final count will be lower, but still far above last year.

The broader AI hype is likely fueling this flood, as is corporate research spending, where pay is sometimes tied to publication records. But the biggest factor is probably that AI makes it much faster to crank out papers. A NeurIPS analysis found that authors used AI heavily to write their submissions.

ICLR 2026 already struggled with low-quality AI-generated submissions and reviews that eroded trust in peer review. Authors submitted AI-generated papers packed with fabricated citations, and reviewers turned to AI just to keep up with the volume. With even more papers flooding in this year, expect those complaints to get louder.

via Reddit