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A major health report from the White House, known as the MAHA Report (Make America Healthy Again), has been found to contain numerous errors. Some of the scientific sources were likely generated using artificial intelligence, leading to incorrect citations, fabricated studies, and non-existent authors.
The report, which includes 522 footnotes, was reviewed by The Washington Post. It revealed that at least 37 references appeared multiple times. Additionally, some citations contained incorrect author names or referred to studies that do not exist.
The term 'oaicite,' which appeared in some URLs, suggests that OpenAI's AI software was used to gather information. AI chatbots like ChatGPT are known to sometimes 'invent' studies or make incorrect information sound plausible.
The report was prepared by a government commission led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at the request of President Donald Trump. It examines why the health of American children is declining and cites factors such as air pollution, poor nutrition, and excessive screen time as causes.
Some references were completely wrong. A study on the overprescription of medications to children with asthma turned out not to exist. In a later version of the report, this was replaced by an existing article from 2017. An article from U.S. News & World Report about children's playtime was also misquoted, with the real author, Kate Rix, replaced by two names that are not journalists.
Additionally, at least 21 links in the footnotes were found to be broken.
On Thursday afternoon, the White House began updating the report on its website, removing incorrect hyperlinks and AI-related references such as 'oaicite.' The updates continued throughout the evening. A spokesperson for the Department of Health, Andrew Nixon, acknowledged that errors had been corrected but emphasized that the content of the report remains valid. 'This is a historic and important report on the health of our children,' Nixon said.
