Peer review is overwhelmed, can it survive in the AI era?

Peer review, the process where other researchers assess whether studies are valid before publication, is struggling to keep up with the surge in research papers being submitted to journals. The number of papers indexed in major databases is increasing at an exponential rate, and volunteer reviewers are overwhelmed with requests, forcing editors to sometimes assign reviews to unqualified people or those without adequate time. Peer review has only been a universal requirement in academic publishing for about 50 years, becoming standard after governments needed assurance that scientific funding decisions were legitimate. As the volume of submissions grows due to more researchers, more journals, interdisciplinary work, AI-assisted writing, and paper mills, the system is showing signs of strain, with some researchers now questioning whether the traditional publishing process is worth maintaining.