As AI will extract information from publicly available sources, it becomes difficult to reference this and there may be a risk of plagiarism. We tried asking ChatGPT to provide references to a question on gastrointestinal physiology and it returned a series of old (pre-2000) publications that were not publicly accessible - the DOIs provided were broken links.
Dave and Patel (2023) point out that AI tools like ChatGPT often generate information without reliable or verifiable sources, creating challenges for proper referencing and academic integrity. Because these systems draw from a huge amount of online data, they may produce inaccurate or defective citations, as the authors found when ChatGPT provided outdated or invalid references. This raises concerns about unintentional plagiarism and misinformation in academic writing. To address this, educators and researchers should verify all AI-generated content, use credible databases for citations, and teach students critical evaluation skills to ensure accuracy and ethical use of AI in scholarly work.