Publish fake stats, get cited in LLMs

An experiment demonstrated how easily fabricated statistics can be cited by large language models (LLMs). Using GPT-4.1, 50,000 invented statistics pages and 15,000 listicles were generated and published on stateglobe.com for about $50. These pages covered topics like SEO, content marketing, and e-commerce across 200 countries. The experiment highlighted that LLMs often prioritize specific, quotable numbers as evidence, even if those numbers are entirely made up, adding little real authority.

This experiment uniquely demonstrates how easily LLMs cite fabricated statistics, unlike previous studies that focused on factual recall or hallucination without direct evidence of citation.