Archive · 25 Jan 2026
AI Hallucinations and Fake Citations in Scientific Research
A company called GPTZero found that more than 50 research papers at a big AI conference called NeurIPS had fake citations.
These fake citations were created by AI and were not real.
The conference is very important for AI researchers, and having a paper accepted there is a big deal.
GPTZero used a special tool to find these fake citations and checked them manually.
The conference has rules against fake citations, and these papers might be rejected or taken down.
This is a problem because even top AI experts are struggling to make sure their AI tools give correct information.
Other conferences and online places for research papers are also having similar issues with AI-generated content.
Over 100 AI-generated fake citations found in 51 papers at NeurIPS 2025 conference.
GPTZero used its 'Hallucination Check' tool to detect and manually verify fake citations.
NeurIPS has a strict policy against hallucinated citations, which can lead to paper rejection or revocation.
The conference saw a record 26,000 attendees and a 220% increase in submissions from 2020 to 2025.
Other research conferences and pre-print repositories are also grappling with AI-generated content and fake citations.
- Who
- GPTZero, NeurIPS 2025 conference organizers and attendees
- What
- Detection of AI-generated fake citations in scientific research papers
- When
- December 2025 (NeurIPS 2025 conference), January 21 (GPTZero report)
- Where
- San Diego, California, United States
- Why
- To ensure the integrity and accuracy of scientific research presented at the conference
- Conference
- NeurIPS 2025
- Number of Papers Scanned
- 4,841
- Papers with Fake Citations
- 51
- Hallucinated Citations Found
- 100+
- Detection Tool
- GPTZero's Hallucination Check
- Conference Location
- San Diego, California, United States
- Acceptance Rate
- 24.52%
- Total Submissions
- 21,575