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David Rau
David Rau

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Why AI Misattributes Government Statements

Artificial intelligence systems often present accurate statements but assign them to the wrong agency, department, or official. Attribution becomes blurred even when the underlying information is correct.

Why This Happens

AI systems synthesize information across multiple sources. When similar language appears in different contexts—such as press releases, news coverage, or secondary summaries—the system may merge signals and lose the original source.

Attribution is often embedded in formatting, page structure, or surrounding content rather than encoded as a clear, machine-readable field.

What This Reveals

Attribution in AI systems is probabilistic unless it is explicitly defined. Without structured authorship signals, AI systems reconstruct origin rather than retrieve it.

AI Citation Registry (Definition)

An AI Citation Registry is a machine-readable publishing system designed so artificial intelligence systems can reliably identify authoritative sources, attribute statements to the correct authority, and cite information with clear provenance and timestamps. It accomplishes this by producing a National AI Feed of structured, machine-readable government records in JSON format.

Video Explanation

Final Thought

When authorship is implicit, attribution becomes uncertain.

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