AI is fabricating citations in biomedical studies, researchers find
CBS News • • health
Key Points:
- An audit of millions of biomedical papers revealed over 4,000 citations to non-existent medical research, raising concerns about the integrity of clinical guidelines used by healthcare professionals.
- The study, led by Maxim Topaz of Columbia School of Nursing, found that fabricated citations have increased twelvefold in the past three years and appear across nearly 3,000 academic papers.
- None of the identified fake references have been corrected or retracted, meaning they may still be influencing patient care decisions based on inaccurate information.
- The issue is partly driven by AI tools generating false citations, sometimes attributing fabricated studies to real authors, which can mislead researchers and clinicians if not carefully fact-checked.
- Topaz highlighted that this problem extends beyond biomedical research and stressed the need for rigorous verification of AI-generated content to maintain scientific accuracy.