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Scientists Invented a Disease to Test Whether A.I. Knew It Was Fake. Then, Chatbots Started Saying It Was Real
(www.smithsonianmag.com)
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this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2026
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Technology
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The eye condition bixonimania doesn’t exist, but neither bots nor some researchers caught that the content was fabricated—despite obvious clues
The first clue being an eye condition with the name mania in it, denoting that it is a mental condition.
Citing Star Trek, LotR and Friends as sources should also have been a clue.
I do wonder whether the studies that cited theirs were actually AI generated themselves….
I read this back in april,
The entire research were very nervous about doing this cause they essentially post misinformation. So they filled it to the brim with clear signs that its fake, tons of pop culture references and nonsensical wording.
I remember doing this kind of stuff back in the day against spoonfeeding. People on forums asked for help, so you provided code and snippets but it would never compile. The issues could easily be fixed by somebody with basic understanding.
I was at a bar where some marketing orangutans were discussing that the forefront of marketing was tricking chatbots into promoting your product or service via BS websites.
Cooked. Entirely cooked.
I see the web fracturing into a gigantic swamp of corporate AI slop and a tiny pool of the indie web.
What wall keeps the corporate ai slop off the "indie web"?
I think it's just routers, ISPs and open internet standards (http, etc) that keep that wall up. 🥲