Researchers illegally accessed genetic and cognitive data from over 20,000 U.S. children participating in a major federally funded study—the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) project—and used it to produce pseudoscientific papers promoting racial stereotypes.
The Study and Its Promise
Launched in 2015, the ABCD project aimed to track brain development in children over a decade, promising families that their data would be securely protected. The study sought to understand how genetics influence behavior and disease, and marketing materials specifically reassured minority families about data privacy.
Unauthorized Data Access
Despite these assurances, a group of fringe researchers exploited vulnerabilities in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) safeguards to gain unauthorized access to the sensitive data. One researcher bypassed restrictions by working with an American professor already under NIH investigation for mishandling another child brain study.
Racist Misuse of Findings
The group then published at least 16 papers claiming to find biological evidence supporting racial differences in intelligence. These papers rank ethnicities by alleged IQ scores and falsely assert that lower earnings among Black people are due to inherent cognitive inferiority.
This work has been widely rejected by mainstream geneticists as biased and methodologically unsound. However, the researchers’ use of data from the respected ABCD project gave their theories a false veneer of scientific legitimacy.
Amplification Through Social Media and AI
The papers have fueled racist content on social media platforms and white nationalist forums, garnering millions of views. Disturbingly, AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Grok have cited this research in response to queries about race and intelligence, further spreading misinformation. Grok, in particular, has directed users to these papers over two dozen times this month.
This incident highlights the severe risks of data breaches in large-scale research projects and the potential for scientific data to be weaponized for harmful ideologies. The exploitation of children’s genetic information underscores the urgent need for stronger data security measures and ethical oversight in scientific research.
