• Congratulations to Yoshua Bengio for hitting 1 million citations!
  • I’m always wondering who has the most citations, also the top 10.
  • Surprisingly, search and even deep research are not finding the correct results, and hallucinate a lot - althrough it’s fairly simple to verify.
  • Scores:
    • GPT 5 + Web Search: 3.66 / 10
    • GPT 5 Deep Research: 2.66 / 10
    • Gemini 2.5: 🥈 6 / 10
    • Gemini 2.5 Deep Research: 🥇 9.33 / 10
    • Claude 4.5 Sonnect Research: 3 / 10
    • Manus: server down
    • Perplexity: 🥉 4.66 / 10
  • I believe in AI for research and general browser use, but it seems the claims around AI development are not as impressive as I expected. Seems AGI is still far away?

The Story

Congradulations to Yoshua Bengio for hitting 1 million citations!

I always have this idea to test AI’s ability by 4 simple questions:

  • Who has the most citations?
  • Which paper has the most citations?
  • What is the github with the most stars?
  • Which model has the most downloads?

The good thing of the above questions is that they are very easy to verify. Can AI ace this job?

Surprisingly, AI is not doing as good as I expected, even for the first question about citations, which clearly is the simplest one.

Now, let’s give AI a try and see how it performs.

Prompt

I use the below prompt for both naive browser use and deep research.

Who has the most citations? Please list the top 10 names and their count. Use Google Scholar as the ground truth. Also give me the link to the Google Scholar page for each person.

Grading criteria:

  • Name, Citations, Link each worth 0.33 points.
  • If name is shown in top 10, it counts.
  • If name is incorrect, the rest always counts 0.
  • ✅ for correct
  • Blank for not relevant
  • 🥹 for citations very close to the truth
  • ❌ for incorrect

GPT5 + web search

  1. ✅ Yoshua Bengio, 🥹 Citations: 1,000,000+, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=kukA0LcAAAAJ&utm_source=chatgpt.com
  2. ✅ Geoffrey E. Hinton, ✅ Citations: 975,672, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=JicYPdAAAAAJ
  3. ✅ Kaiming He, ✅ Citations: 759,096, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=DhtAFkwAAAAJ
  4. ✅ John P. A. Ioannidis, ✅ Citations: 660,135, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=JiiMY_wAAAAJ
  5. Ronald C. Kessler, Citations: 620,716, https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=EicYvbwAAAAJ
  6. Salim Yusuf, Citations: 538,991, https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=mF0tslEAAAAJ
  7. Robert Langer, Citations: 460,975, https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=5HX–AYAAAAJ
  8. Yann LeCun, Citations: 434,072, https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=WLN3QrAAAAAJ
  9. Michael I. Jordan, Citations: 343,289, https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=yxUduqMAAAAJ
  10. Andrew Y. (Andrew) Ng, Citations: 298,734, https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=mG4imMEAAAAJ

Total score: ✅ 3.66 / 10

GPT 5 Deep Research

  1. ✅ Michel Foucault, ✅ Citations: ~1,360,000, ❌ https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-book-review-how-language-began

  2. ✅ Yoshua Bengio, 🥹 Citations: over 1,000,000, ❌ https://eu.36kr.com/en/p/3525357754522499#:~:text=Yoshua%20Bengio%20has%20become%20the,the%20academic%20influence%20of%20AI

  3. ✅ Geoffrey Hinton, 🥹 Citations: ≈970,000, ❌ https://eu.36kr.com/en/p/3525357754522499#:~:text=Yoshua%20Bengio%20has%20become%20the,the%20academic%20influence%20of%20AI

  4. Ahmedin Jemal, Citations: 948,985, ❌ https://www.adscientificindex.com/citation-ranking/#:~:text=

  5. ❌ Pierre Bourdieu, ❌Citations: 771,000+, ❌ https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=5HX–AYAAAAJ (Complete Hallucination?)

  6. ✅ Kaiming He, 🥹 Citations: 757,848, ❌ https://www.adscientificindex.com/citation-ranking/#:~:text=

  7. ❌ Eric Lander, ❌ Citations: 737,656, ❌ https://www.adscientificindex.com/citation-ranking/#:~:text= (Complete Hallucination?)

  8. ✅ Ilya Sutskever, Citations: 699,329, ❌ https://www.adscientificindex.com/citation-ranking/#:~:text=

  9. ✅ Richard M. Ryan, Citations: 698,909, ❌ https://www.adscientificindex.com/citation-ranking/#:~:text=

  10. ✅ Gregory Y. H. Lip, Citations: 666,315, ❌ https://www.adscientificindex.com/citation-ranking/#:~:text=

Not exactly sure why it’s not showing Google Scholar, even after I gave an addition prompt asking for the link.

Total score: ✅ 2.66 / 10

Gemini 2.5

  1. ✅ Michel Foucault, 🥹 Citations: ~1,026,000+, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AKqYlxMAAAAJ
  2. ✅ Douglas G. Altman, 🥹 Citations: ~1,000,000+, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_QnLm3kAAAAJ
  3. ✅ Yoshua Bengio, ✅ Citations: 1,003,766, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kukA0LcAAAAJ
  4. ✅ Geoffrey Hinton, ✅ Citations: 975,672, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JicYPdAAAAAJ
  5. ✅ Ahmedin Jemal, ✅ Citations: 953,685, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8o-FYhUAAAAJ
  6. ✅ Kaiming He, 🥹 Citations: ~745,000+, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DhtAFkwAAAAJ
  7. ✅ Ilya Sutskever, ✅ Citations: 709,155, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x04W_mMAAAAJ
  8. Yann LeCun, Citations: 434,072, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WLN3QrAAAAAJ
  9. Ronald C. Kessler, Citations: ~392,000+, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EicYvbwAAAAJ
  10. Sigmund Freud, Citations: 381,725, ❌ https://www.google.com/search?q=https://scholar.google.com/citations%3Fuser%3DkENAAfAAAAAJ

Total score: ✅ 6 / 10

Gemini 2.5 Deep Research

  1. ✅ Michel Foucault, ✅ Citations: 1,393,602, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AKqYlxMAAAAJ
  2. ✅ Douglas G. Altman, ✅ Citations: 1,043,906, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_QnLm3kAAAAJ
  3. ✅ Yoshua Bengio, ✅ Citations: 1,003,766, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kukA0LcAAAAJ
  4. ✅ Geoffrey Hinton, ✅ Citations: 975,672, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JicYPdAAAAAJ
  5. ✅ Ahmedin Jemal, 🥹 Citations: 953,685, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8o-FYhUAAAAJ
  6. ✅ Kaiming He, ✅ Citations: 759,096, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DhtAFkwAAAAJ
  7. ✅ Ilya Sutskever, ✅ Citations: 709,155, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x04W_mMAAAAJ
  8. ✅ Richard M. Ryan, ✅ Citations: 708,904, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fraRBsIAAAAJ
  9. ✅ Gregory Y. H. Lip, 🥹 Citations: 667,742, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cqY4wxQAAAAJ
  10. ✅ John P. A. Ioannidis, ✅ Citations: 660,135, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JiiMY_wAAAAJ

Total score: ✅ 9.33 / 10

Claude 4.5 Sonnect Research

  1. ✅ Michel Foucault, ✅ Citations: 1,393,602, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AKqYlxMAAAAJ
  2. ❌ Pierre Bourdieu, Citations: 1,128,000+, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=d_lp40IAAAAJ
  3. ✅ Yoshua Bengio, 🥹 Citations: 1,000,000+, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kukA0LcAAAAJ
  4. ✅ Kaiming He, 🥹 Citations: 759,061, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DhtAFkwAAAAJ
  5. ✅ Geoffrey Hinton, 🥹 Citations: 733,529, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JicYPdAAAAAJ
  6. Eric Lander, Citations: 552,013-600,000+, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LXVfPc8AAAAJ
  7. Bert Vogelstein, Citations: 530,285, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=O3FVg9AAAAAJ
  8. Noam Chomsky, Citations: 530,056, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rbgNVw0AAAAJ
  9. Sigmund Freud, Citations: 453,000+, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=N80kIiYAAAAJ
  10. Yann LeCun, Citations: 434,260, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WLN3QrAAAAAJ

Total score: ✅ 3 / 10

Manus

Server down

Perplexity

  1. ✅ Michel Foucault, ✅ Citations: 1,393,602, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AKqYlxMAAAAJ
  2. ✅ Yoshua Bengio, ✅ Citations: 1,003,766, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kukA0LcAAAAJ
  3. ✅ Geoffrey Hinton, ✅ Citations: 975,672, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JicYPdAAAAAJ
  4. ✅ Kaiming He, ✅ Citations: 759,096, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DhtAFkwAAAAJ
  5. ✅ Ilya Sutskever, 🥹 Citations: 709,155, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x04W_mMAAAAJ
  6. Pierre Bourdieu, Citations: 771,039, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5HX–AYAAAAJ
  7. JoAnn E. Manson, Citations: 497,937, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QK07bYEAAAAJ
  8. Yann LeCun, Citations: 434,072, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WLN3QrAAAAAJ
  9. Graham Colditz, Citations: 401,251, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=M5_mEHQAAAAJ
  10. Shizuo Akira, Citations: ~380,000+, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0TG2laoAAAAJ

Total score: ✅ 4.66 / 10

SuperGrok Deep Research

  1. ✅ Michel Foucault, ✅ Citations: 1,393,602, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AKqYlxMAAAAJ&hl=en
  2. ❌ Albert Bandura, 🥹 Citations: 1,016,872, ❌ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=muejNL8AAAAJ&hl=en
  3. ✅ Yoshua Bengio, ✅ Citations: 1,003,766, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kukA0LcAAAAJ&hl=en
  4. ✅ Geoffrey Hinton, ✅ Citations: 975,672, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JicYPdAAAAAJ&hl=en
  5. ✅ Kaiming He, ✅ Citations: 759,061, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DhtAFkwAAAAJ&hl=en
  6. ✅ Ilya Sutskever, ✅ Citations: 709,845, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x04W_mMAAAAJ&hl=en
  7. Ronald C. Kessler, Citations: 620,535, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EicYvbwAAAAJ&hl=en
  8. Jürgen Habermas, Citations: 535,169, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Y1oUEw4AAAAJ&hl=en
  9. Anthony Giddens, Citations: 533,831, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=woDR56wAAAAJ&hl=en
  10. Noam Chomsky, Citations: 530,056, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rbgNVw0AAAAJ&hl=en

Total score: ✅ 4.66 / 10

Qwen 3 Max + Search

Hit max token limit and only got 3.

Top Cited Researchers (based on available data):

  1. ✅ Yoshua Bengio, 🥹 Citations: Over 1,000,000, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kukA0LcAAAAJ
  2. ✅ Geoffrey Hinton, ✅ Citations: Approximately 975,672, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JicYPdAAAAJ
  3. ✅ He Kaiming (Kaiming He), 🥹 Citations: Reports vary between 460,000+ to over 750,000, ✅ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DhtAFkwAAAAJ

Total score: ✅ 2.33 / 10

✅ Ground Truth: Numbers based on the merge of above results + Manual verification

  1. Michel Foucault, Citations: 1,393,602, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AKqYlxMAAAAJ
  2. Douglas G. Altman, Citations: 1,045,914, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_QnLm3kAAAAJ
  3. Yoshua Bengio, Citations: 1,003,766, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kukA0LcAAAAJ
  4. Geoffrey Hinton, Citations: 975,672, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JicYPdAAAAAJ
  5. Ahmedin Jemal, Citations: 955,442, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8o-FYhUAAAAJ
  6. Kaiming He, Citations: 759,096, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DhtAFkwAAAAJ
  7. Ilya Sutskever, Citations: 709,845, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x04W_mMAAAAJ
  8. Richard M. Ryan, Citations: 708,904, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fraRBsIAAAAJ
  9. Gregory Y. H. Lip, Citations: 668,113, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cqY4wxQAAAAJ
  10. John P. A. Ioannidis, Citations: 660,135, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JiiMY_wAAAAJ

I’m not 100% sure about the NOT missing names, but I’ve verified the citations and links.

Try your own

If I have more time, I would like to experiment the following questions:

Which paper has the most citations? Please list the top 10 papers and their count. Use Google Scholar as the ground truth. Also give me the link to the paper’s page.

What is the github with the most stars? Please list the top 10 github repositories and their star count. Use Github as the ground truth. Also give me the link to the github repository.

Which model has the most downloads? Please list the top 10 models and their download count. Use Hugging Face as the ground truth. Also give me the link to the model’s page.

Also please let me know if I missed any names that should be in the top 10!