From Public Posts to AI-Search Citations: Measuring the Fragility of AI Search

Evidence record

Author-reported ten-platform citation measurement and controlled fabricated-concept publication experiments, including a $14 promotion service test.

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Claim-level citations (5)

• supportsFabricated public posts entered AI-search citations in a ten-platform study: In a separate author-run test, a $14 content-promotion service produced 13 public posts, and one measured AI-search platform cited text carrying the researchers' markers within an hour.

  Abstract, finding (3), $14 GEO test and citation markers

• supportsFabricated public posts entered AI-search citations in a ten-platform study: These measurements document platform behavior under controlled prompts and publications; the paper does not measure how often ordinary real-world AI-search responses are successfully manipulated by malicious actors.

  Abstract, framework and experimental setup statements

• supportsFabricated public posts entered AI-search citations in a ten-platform study: In controlled posting experiments, eight of the ten tested AI-search platforms cited a researcher-invented concept within seven days of its publication.

  Abstract, finding (2), fabricated concept and seven-day period

• supportsFabricated public posts entered AI-search citations in a ten-platform study: The authors measured 17,211 AI-search citation instances spanning 6,356 source domains across ten platforms, finding that each platform's top 20 cited domains accounted for 20.5% to 70.8% of citations.

  Abstract, sentence beginning Across 10 AI-search platforms, finding (1)

• supportsFabricated public posts entered AI-search citations in a ten-platform study: Of 22 publication platforms examined in the citation-source study, 15 had low or medium barriers to both opening an account and posting. In a separate controlled comparison, one article on a highly preferred domain had greater citation impact than more than 20 matched posts on less-preferred domains.

  Abstract, finding (1), 15 of 22 publication platforms; finding (2), one high-preference article versus more than 20 matched posts