This is embarrassing. Yes, it appears that the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission report was riddled with errors, including some non-existent citations and misrepresentation of other cited studies in its narrative. My initial impulse when I first read about the errors was that the report was probably largely "written" with AI instead of by the authors of the report themselves. It turns out my gut feeling was right on the money. Washington Post (paywalled, unfortunately) has an article showing a fair amount of AI's fingerprints on the references cited. I can't say I am really surprised. These fools apparently expected that no one would be the wiser. Remember that old saying, "you can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time"? I'd reckon that saying is applicable here.
If the individuals responsible for this MAHA Commission report were students in one of my classes and I noticed the apparent AI influence, I would have no choice but to assign a 0 to the paper citing plagiarism concerns - with examples clearly identified. Regrettably, these are not my students but rather are public officials who wield a great deal of power over our own health outcomes in the US, and it is highly probable that the base supporting the current White House administration won't care about that little matter of academic integrity. This is not the first time that a high-profile public individual has been caught using AI to do their work, and it is safe to say it won't be the last time. I am asking those in the scientific community and the general public to be vigilant and to call out this form of fraud when they see it. That is especially crucial when the documents generated by AI are going to be used to make decisions that affect all of our health outcomes.
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