AI conference ICLR is drowning in abstracts, with roughly 50,000 submissions before the deadline

ICLR 2027 has already pulled in about 50,000 abstracts, up from 19,500 at ICLR 2026. The flood is driven by the AI hype, corporate pay tied to publication records, and above all, AI making it faster to crank out papers. That's only going to worsen existing quality problems with submissions and reviews.