Registry/APM-0064
Case No.
APM-0064
Filed
July 29, 2026
Severity
2 / 5 · LOW

Meta pulled its Galactica science AI after three days when it generated authoritative-sounding false papers and fake citations

Attribution Anonymous

Independent project · aggregated from public reports and may be unverified — see the primary source below · not affiliated with or endorsed by any company or product named.

In November 2022 Meta launched Galactica, a large language model meant to write and reason about science. Within days researchers showed it produced fluent but wrong content: fabricated papers, citations to authors and studies that do not exist, and some biased and offensive text, all delivered with the confident tone of a real paper. Meta took the public demo down after about three days.

Verified Facts

  • Meta launched Galactica in November 2022 as an AI for science
  • It generated plausible-sounding but false content and fake citations
  • Meta took the public demo down after about three days

Not Publicly Confirmed

  • How many users relied on any of the false output

Operational Lessons

  • Fluent, confident text is not evidence of correctness
  • A science tool needs grounding and citation verification, not just fluency
Meta's 'biased' science-writing AI demo gets pulled after three days (Silicon Republic)siliconrepublic.com
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