Leveraging generative artificial intelligence errors to teach appropriate citation usage

Educators would benefit from developing course material that increases understanding of generative artificial intelligence (AI). General-purpose large language models (LLMs) popular among students often handle citations incorrectly. These LLMs produce fabricated references referred to as hallucinations and often cite even real citations erroneously. These citation hallucinations and errors offer an opportunity to correct mistakes, understand reference interpretation, and learn appropriate source type usage. Here we repurpose generative AI errors as examples for teaching the rigorous citation of primary and secondary sources in scientific writing. The designed exercise simultaneously achieves learning objectives with regard to AI and information literacy. Seeing the factual errors in writing and citation usage firsthand demonstrates a key weakness in generative AI. Also, our exercise gives students a structure in which to practice appropriate source type usage. The errors produced by generative AI provide opportunities to practice and improve scientific writing skills. Our article proposes a conceptual framework within which to implement this approach in the classroom.