AI hallucinations are infiltrating expert work—and entering the permanent body of knowledge
AI tools are increasingly inserting fabricated references into academic papers, a phenomenon that risks undermining the scientific process. A study of biomedical literature found over 4,000 fake citations across nearly 3,000 papers, with the rate of such errors rising sharply since 2024. These AI-generated inaccuracies can compromise evidence-based medical guidelines and patient treatment, as errors at the foundational level of research propagate through the entire knowledge chain. AI
IMPACT Undermines the integrity of scientific literature and evidence-based decision-making in critical fields like medicine.