A dishonest scientist can mine a dataset for statistically significant hypotheses and for a long time no institutional protection against it was in place: http

A dishonest scientist can mine a dataset for statistically significant hypotheses and for a long time no institutional protection against it was in place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_dredging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_dredging https://www.xkcd.com/882/ https://www.xkcd.com/882/ Machine learning makes it easier to test great many hypothesis, but even going fully "by hand" it is very easy to deviate from what the statistical framework of hypothesis testing would demand. There are now some discussions about counter-measures, e.g. about preregistration of studies: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/more-and-more-scientists-are-preregistering-their-studies-should-you http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/more-and-more-scienti... You can see this as another chapter in the long debate about the correct way to test scientific hypotheses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_hypothesis_testing#Criticism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_hypothesis_testing...