Mark Twain’s quote, ‘Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint,’

Mark Twain’s observation has been updated. Swedish researchers invented a bogus disease and published sham papers and then posted the results on the Internet. Let the games begin!

Bixonimania: How AI Turned a Joke Diagnosis into “Peer‑Reviewed” Medicine

Back in 2024, researchers created a fake eye disease called “bixonimania” to see whether AI chatbots would repeat it as if it were real.

They wrote obviously bogus research papers about this made‑up condition and posted them online, including hints such as a fake author and notes saying the work was invented. Within weeks, major chatbots started describing bixonimania as a real diagnosis and even gave people advice about it when they asked about eye symptoms.

It’s the invention of a team led by Almira Osmanovi

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