Artificial Hallucinations by Google Bard: Think Before You Leap
Open accessAbstract
One of the critical challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI) tools like Google Bard (Google LLC, Mountain View, California, United States) is the potential for "artificial hallucinations." These refer to instances where an AI chatbot generates fictional, erroneous, or unsubstantiated information in response to queries. In research, such inaccuracies can lead to the propagation of misinformation and undermine the credibility of scientific literature. The experience presented here highlights the importance of cross-checking the information provided by AI tools with reliable sources and maintaining a cautious approach when utilizing these tools in research writing.
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Hallucinations have been encountered in various domains, including the content itself and the cited references, including their bibliographic identifiers.
“Hallucinations have been encountered in various domains, including the content itself and the cited references, including their bibliographic identifiers [12,27-29].”
From Reference Hallucination Score for Medical Artificial Intelligence Chatbots: Development and Usability Study (2024) · cites this paper as [27]
The Editorial reports that Bard gave an incorrect answer about FAST-MI and that its article citation was “completely made up,” supporting hallucinations in both content and references. Our copy does not say whether the fabricated citation included a bibliographic identifier or whether one was incorrect. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAI chatbots encounter a hallucination/fabrication phenomenon that was recognized early in their use in health care.
“Additionally, AI chatbots encounter a hallucination/fabrication phenomenon recognized early in their use in health care.”
From Reference Hallucination Score for Medical Artificial Intelligence Chatbots: Development and Usability Study (2024) · cites this paper as [27]
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- Authors
- Kumar, M., Mani, U. A., Tripathi, P., Saalim, M., & Roy, S.
- Affiliations
- King George's Medical University (IN)
- Corresponding author
- Mani, Utsav Anand
- Venue
- Cureus
- Published
- 2023-08-10
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- e43313-e43313
- ISSN
- 2168-8184 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10492900
- OpenAlex
- W4385766819
- Cited by
- 59
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 3
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Cureus (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Health Informatics › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Keywords
- Google Bard, large language models, AI chatbots, misinformation, academic writing, source verification
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