<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/sep/01/how-misinformation-ai-hallucinations-infiltrating-australian-parliament>
"Australia’s government inquiry process is supposed to help parliament make
better decisions, hearing from experts and constituents alike. But
Guardian
Australia can reveal that the system is being flooded with AI-generated
material, which is inventing studies and attributing nonexistent research to
real academics and authors.
In some cases, committee reports have cited submissions in which the majority
of sources appear to be AI-generated “hallucinations”, when large language
models (LLMs) invent content that looks real but doesn’t actually exist.
If the phenomenon continues, there is a significant risk of parliamentarians
“making decisions based on evidence that doesn’t exist”, says Christian Downie,
a professor in the Australian National University’s school of regulation and
global governance.
The situation is made more confusing by AI services including Google search.
Previously, looking up an invented reference might produce results that would
indicate the reference did not exist. Now Google’s AI summary will sometimes
create summaries of a fake reference as though it were genuine.
In some instances, Google’s AI summary and ChatGPT will also cite the inquiry
submission with the fake reference as a source, creating an ongoing cycle of
misinformation."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
