The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has launched a formal investigation into a published doctoral thesis, after it was found to contain non-existent references generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The investigation was launched after allegations emerged online that the paper titled "Forty years of fertility transition in Hong Kong"published in the academic journal China Population and Development Studies contained "AI hallucinations", meaning false, inaccurate or misleading information generated by the bot.
Local newspaper Ming Pao reported that among the 61 references listed, which included academic articles, books, government statistics, and Legislative Council documents, 21 items contained a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) link, while 35 included links to Google Scholar. But upon clicking on the links, seven DOIs were listed as "not found", and 22 Google Scholar links showed that the article could not be found, the report read.
HKU PhD student Bai Yiming was listed as the primary author, alongside HKU’s chair professor of population health Paul Yip as the corresponding author, and the government’s Census and Statistics Department researcher Billy Li and three other academics as co-authors. Yip confirmed to local media outlet HK01 that the student used AI to tidy up the references but did not check the content. He admitted responsibility as the corresponding author of the paper and apologised for the incident. He said he had reported the incident to the journal, managed by German-British academic publishing company Springer Nature, and the correct version of the article will be uploaded in the coming days.
