AI-Generated Fake Citations Surge 1200% in Biomedical Research, Threatening Clinical Guidelines
A staggering surge in AI-generated fake citations has been detected in biomedical research papers, with a 1200% increase since 2023, posing a significant threat to the integrity of clinical guidelines. This phenomenon has significant implications for the trustworthiness of medical research and the development of evidence-based treatments.
An audit of 2.5 million biomedical papers by Columbia University and other institutions shows that the rate of fabricated references has increased more than twelvefold since 2023. The researchers suspect a link to the widespread use of language models - the fake references match their paper's topic, follow correct formatting, and are nearly impossible to spot. 98 percent of the affected papers have received no response from their publishers. The article AI-hallucinated citations are creeping into papers that shape clinical guidelines, researchers warn appeared first on The Decoder.