alt Hacker News> It is fraud.
I think we are talking semantics here.
While fraud does require intention to deceive, I get the sentiment that hallucinated citations shouldn't be dismissed as simply carelessness. It should be something stronger than that: gross negligence or something MUCH stronger! There should absolutely be repercussions for this.
But let's not call it fraud. That word is reserved for something specific.
EDIT: someone else said "reckless disregard" equals intent or something to that effect. So I looked it up.
It appears so that is the case. "Reckless Disregard Equals Intent" in legal language.
But I am not sure if this particular clause should apply here. Perhaps it depends on what kind of research is being published? For e.g., if it is related to medical science and has a real consequence on people's health, we can then apply this?
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The intent to deceive is there. The deception is lying when you submit it that it is a scholarly piece of work in which amongst many other things you know the citations are accurate. This false representation was knowingly and intentionally made at the time of submission.
The citation being incorrect is merely the proof of deception not the (relevant) deception itself.
Fraud is the correct description provided (and this is practically a guarantee) you intended to benefit from the submission of the paper (e.g. by bolstering your resume).
I think (though might well be misunderstanding) that reckless disregard is taken to be an intentional choice but that it does not imply that the outcome itself was intentional. The difference between intentionally doing something that you know for a fact has a high risk of failure but you can't necessarily predict the outcome versus intentionally seeking a particular legally disallowed outcome.
But what LPisGood was saying is that reckless disregard (as opposed to explicit intent) is sufficient to meet the legal bar for fraud.
I do believe this policy is appropriate to deal with the reckless disregard of posting hallucinated references.
It's a conscious decision to not take the time to check your AI output, and instead waste a whole bunch of other people's time letting them essentially do that for you in duplicate.
Feels like that should disqualify you from participation for a bit. Intent or no intent.