---
title: When the Master's Thesis Topics Have Already Been Written
author: Martin Ebner
date: 2026-10-18
url: https://postgenerative.at/indications/2026-10-18/when-the-master-s-thesis-topics-have-already-been-written
lang: en
type: Indication
summary: A student requests two master's thesis topics that were completed long ago. An AI may lie behind this, suggesting old theses as new topics. Accepted without verification, the suggestions produce a peculiar everyday situation.
tags:
  - Higher education
  - Education
  - Everyday life
sources:
  - title: Personal experience report by Martin Ebner
translatedBy: Martin Ebner
license: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
alternate:
  de: https://postgenerativ.at/indizien/2026-10-18/wenn-die-masterarbeitsthemen-schon-geschrieben-sind
---

# When the Master's Thesis Topics Have Already Been Written

A student writes to me because he would like to write a master's thesis with me. In his email, he immediately names two specific titles that interest him. I am surprised: neither topic appears on our publicly accessible list of open theses.

I make internal inquiries, but nobody knows anything about them. Only after some research do I find the two titles again, among the master's theses I supervised years ago. Both were completed long ago.

Our assumption: the student asked an AI for possible topics and adopted its suggestions. We do not know whether this actually happened. When asked, he does at least send a link to the very page on which the completed theses are listed.

Two supposedly new topics that already existed long ago. Brave new world, if one simply trusts suggestions.