White House Dodges AI Accusation After MAHA Report Cited Studies That ‘Appear Not to Exist’

The White House defended Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. amid scrutiny of the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) Commission report, which was found to cite multiple studies that do not exist.

At a Thursday briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed concerns, insisting the report remains a “transformative” achievement.

When a reporter asked Leavitt directly if artificial intelligence had played a role in drafting the 73-page report—a possibility raised by the volume of citation errors—Leavitt declined to answer. “I can’t speak to that,” she said. “I would defer you to the Department of Health and Human Services.”

“We have complete confidence in Secretary Kennedy and his team at HHS,” Leavitt said. She attributed the citation of nonexistent studies to “formatting issues,” which she said are being addressed.

The errors “do not negate the substance of the report,” Leavitt continued. “Which, as you know, is one of the most transformative health reports that has ever been released by the federal government and is backed on good science.”

Despite insistence that the MAHA report is backed by “good science,” the citations were rife with errors. At least seven of the cited sources could not be linked to any existing study, according to an investigation by NOTUS.

“The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,” epidemiologist Katherine Keyes told NOTUS, referencing a cited study on adolescent anxiety where she is listed as an author. The link to the study is broken, and the citation’s claim that the study was published in JAMA Pediatrics could not be verified.

Pediatric Pulmonologist Harold J. Farber was named as author of a study the MAHA report cited in support of its claim that “American child are on too much medicine.” Farber denies writing the report and noted that he’s worked on similar research, but its conclusions are not accurately presented.

Among the MAHA report’s citations of confirmed studies, there were broken links, author or issue number errors, and several instances where the findings of a cited study were misrepresented.

Leavitt’s deflection when asked if the errors could be attributed to AI did little to calm critics who doubt Kennedy’s competence in medical science.

The MAHA commission is expected to release a follow-up document, the “Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy,” in August.

Originally published on Latin Times