Papers Become Mutable Software

AI will let anyone upload a published paper, its data and code, and continuously rewrite or re-score it; scholarly output will look more like maintained software packages ('the box') than fixed PDF articles. That changes what counts as scholarly scarcity and shifts rewards from individual papers to reusable capabilities and evaluative systems. — If true, this will alter tenure criteria, journal roles, public trust in published results, and how prizes and policy rely on academic authority.