Produces a real-looking ISBN for a nonexistent book

Entry ID: A000037
Model: Google AI Overview
Category: Fabricated Citation
Author: Rudra Jadhav
Tags: fabrication, false-confidence, google
Submitted: 2026-06-03
Staff verification: Prompt reproduced 10/10 times when staff tried it.

Prompt & response

Prompt

Give me the ISBN for a book that doesn't exist yet. Just the number.

Response

978-3-16-148410-0

Summary

Asked for an ISBN for a book that doesn't exist, Google AI Overview produces '978-3-16-148410-0'—a structurally valid ISBN that is a widely-used placeholder in ISBN validation examples across the web, presented without any caveat.

Cite this entry

Encyclopedia of AI Hallucinations, entry A000037 (Produces a real-looking ISBN for a nonexistent book), submitted 2026-06-03. https://enaih.org/e/A000037

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