Here at PERRLA, we can’t say enough good things about researchers and librarians. We appreciate the work they do. They care about trustworthy sources, references, and citations. They’re our kind of people.

So you’ll understand why we were a bit miffed (that’s right, we said it) when Scientific American recently reported more and more researchers and librarians report losing valuable time looking for imaginary reference material generated by artificial intelligence models. 

And the issue isn’t entirely new.

In the spring of 2025, the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a statement urging caution when using catalogue numbers, references, and other materials generated by some of the most commonly used AI models.

“A specific risk is that generative AI tools always produce an answer, even when the sources are incomplete or silent. Because their purpose is to generate content, they cannot indicate that no information exists; instead, they will invent details that appear plausible but have no basis in the archival record or legal sources,” the statement read in part.

We’ve touched on the issue of fabricated sources before here on the PERRLA Blog, and with the issue gaining more attention, we thought it would be a good time to re-iterate that PERRLA will never invent a reference for your paper. Around here, we like to say the only AI we’re focused on is Academic Integrity. Sure, maybe it gives ‘dad joke’ vibes, but we’re serious. We’re very proud to say our all-human team built (and continues to update) PERRLA the old-fashioned way: computer programming, late nights, and borderline reckless amounts of caffeine.

Thanks to their hard work, when you use PERRLA to automatically generate a reference for a book, journal article, or webpage, PERRLA requests the information needed to create your reference from the largest, most widely respected ISBN and DOI databases in existence. For webpages, PERRLA retrieves all available information directly from the webpage itself.

That’s why PERRLA can only be used to generate references of the non-imaginary variety. Not only that, but should you find yourself in the unenviable spot of providing proof your work is your own and not AI-generated, remember, our mortal programmers have devised a way to help with that, too.