US Department silently replaced report with AI-fake quotes
The US Department of Health and Human Services report on chronic childhood diseases found itself at the center of a scientific scandal. Experts discovered that the document “Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment” contains falsified quotes and non-existent studies.
Imagine: 7 cited scientific works simply don’t exist in reality! Moreover, some scientists mentioned in the report stated they never conducted the research attributed to them. Analysts at the New York Times suggested that parts of the report could have been generated by artificial intelligence, known for its “hallucinations”. When the algorithm simply invents “facts” that fit the context of the query.
Despite the fact that many experts consider the main conclusions of the report about the connection between ultra-processed food and diabetes, autism and ADHD to be justified, the very fact of using fictitious sources undermines trust in the work. The Department has already silently replaced the original document with a corrected version on its website. But officially hasn’t acknowledged using artificial intelligence, calling the errors “minor”.
This is an alarming precedent. Government structures may unconsciously or consciously spread disinformation and noticing this becomes increasingly difficult.
