A report released by the Trump administration's Make America Healthy Again Commission, presented as an evidence-based document on children's health issues, was found to contain numerous false citations. These fabricated citations referenced non-existent studies on various topics, including direct-to-consumer drug advertising, mental illness, and asthma medications.
The inaccuracies were first reported by NOTUS, and further investigated by the New York Times. Experts, like Columbia University professor Katherine Keyes, who was incorrectly cited, expressed concern over the lack of rigor in the report's research. The errors involved referencing studies that do not exist, raising issues about the report's reliability.
Dr. Ivan Oransky, a medical journalism professor and co-founder of Retraction Watch, suggested that the errors might be indicative of using generative artificial intelligence in creating the report. He noted that similar issues have arisen in other contexts, including legal filings, highlighting the growing problem of AI-generated inaccuracies.
The White House responded by issuing a corrected version of the report, replacing the erroneous citations. The incident underscores the potential pitfalls of relying on AI for the creation of official reports and the need for stringent verification practices.
The Trump administration released a report last week that it billed as a “clear, evidence-based foundation” for action on a range of children’s health issues.
But the report, from the presidential Make America Healthy Again Commission, cited studies that did not exist. These included fictitious studies on direct-to-consumer drug advertising, mental illness and medications prescribed for children with asthma.
“It makes me concerned about the rigor of the report, if these really basic citation practices aren’t being followed,” said Katherine Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University who was listed as the author of a paper on mental health and substance use among adolescents. Dr. Keyes has not written any paper by the title the report cited, nor does one seem to exist by any author.
The news outlet NOTUS first reported the presence of false citations, and The New York Times identified additional faulty references. By midafternoon on Thursday, the White House had uploaded a new copy of the report with corrections.
Dr. Ivan Oransky — who teaches medical journalism at New York University and is a co-founder of Retraction Watch, a website that tracks retractions of scientific research — said the errors in the report were characteristic of the use of generative artificial intelligence, which has led to similar issues in legal filings and more.
Dr. Oransky said that while he did not know whether the government had used A.I. in producing the report or the citations, “we’ve seen this particular movie before, and it’s unfortunately much more common in scientific literature than people would like or than really it should be.”
If you often open multiple tabs and struggle to keep track of them, Tabs Reminder is the solution you need. Tabs Reminder lets you set reminders for tabs so you can close them and get notified about them later. Never lose track of important tabs again with Tabs Reminder!
Try our Chrome extension today!
Share this article with your
friends and colleagues.
Earn points from views and
referrals who sign up.
Learn more