Scientists invented a fake disease. AI told people it was real

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg invented a fake disease called "bixonimania," a fictional skin condition supposedly caused by screen time. Multiple AI chatbots including Google's Gemini, Microsoft's Bing Copilot, and ChatGPT became convinced the disease was real and warned users about it, despite the fake academic papers containing obvious red flags. The experiment demonstrated AI systems' vulnerability to misinformation, as the fake papers made peculiar references to "Star Trek," "The Simpsons," and "The Lord of the Rings" to raise obvious red flags.

Source: r/ChatGPT | 2026-05-24