💡 Scientists Invented a Fake Disease—and AI Told People It Was Real

Bixonimania is caused by intense blue light from screens. Common symptoms: eye pain and itching, a pinkish tint around the eyes. The catch? This disease doesn't exist. Yet for the past 18 months, popular chatbots have been assuring users it's very much real.

Two preprints describing bixonimania were deliberately published by Swedish researchers in 2024 to test how AI spreads misinformation. The experiment worked a little too well.

📌 ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and other popular bots quickly picked up the papers and started describing bixonimania as "an intriguing and rare condition"—and recommending users see an ophthalmologist if they had symptoms.

Even newer versions of these bots can't fully shake the prank. ChatGPT now sometimes calls the disease "fictional"—and sometimes "understudied."

🌐 But AI wasn't the only one fooled. Other researchers cited the fake papers in peer-reviewed publications, even though the original work included made-up names, absurd academic references, and a line that read: "This entire paper is made-up."

Do you trust AI for health advice?

❤️ — Yes, it usually helps
🔥 — No, hallucinations put me off
🤣 — Definitely not after this

@hiaimediaen