The Australian government paid consultants Deloitte 440,000 Australian dollars ($290,000) for a report on the use of automated penalties in Australia’s welfare system. The final version of the report was placed on the Department of Employment and Workplace Relation, but that’s far from the end of the story.
Law professor Chris Rudge at Sydney Law School read the published report and immediately knew there was a problem — he says the report was “full of fabricated references,” and he catalogued some 20 errors. The most obvious was a citation to a colleague, Lisa Burton Crawford, that seemed suspicious. Rudge said, “I instantaneously knew it was either hallucinated by AI or the world’s best kept secret because I’d never heard of the book and it sounded preposterous.”
But there were other issues — including made up caselaw.
“They’ve totally misquoted a court case then made up a quotation from a judge and I thought, well hang on: that’s actually a bit bigger than academics’ egos. That’s about misstating the law to the Australian government in a report that they rely on. So I thought it was important to stand up for diligence,” Rudge said.
Deloitte re-issued the report, saying the recommendations and “substance” of the report remain unchanged but they “confirmed some footnotes and references were incorrect.” And the new version of the report added a noteworthy disclosure — that Azure OpenAI was used.
And they’re going to refund some of the money the Australian government paid, saying the “matter has been resolved directly with the client.” But that’s not enough for some. Australian Senator Barbara Pocock wants a full refund, noting Deloitte “misused AI and used it very inappropriately: misquoted a judge, used references that are non-existent.” Pocock continued, “I mean, the kinds of things that a first-year university student would be in deep trouble for.”
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
The post Law Professor Catches Deloitte Using Made-Up AI Hallucinations In Government Report appeared first on Above the Law.
The Australian government paid consultants Deloitte 440,000 Australian dollars ($290,000) for a report on the use of automated penalties in Australia’s welfare system. The final version of the report was placed on the Department of Employment and Workplace Relation, but that’s far from the end of the story.
Law professor Chris Rudge at Sydney Law School read the published report and immediately knew there was a problem — he says the report was “full of fabricated references,” and he catalogued some 20 errors. The most obvious was a citation to a colleague, Lisa Burton Crawford, that seemed suspicious. Rudge said, “I instantaneously knew it was either hallucinated by AI or the world’s best kept secret because I’d never heard of the book and it sounded preposterous.”
But there were other issues — including made up caselaw.
“They’ve totally misquoted a court case then made up a quotation from a judge and I thought, well hang on: that’s actually a bit bigger than academics’ egos. That’s about misstating the law to the Australian government in a report that they rely on. So I thought it was important to stand up for diligence,” Rudge said.
Deloitte re-issued the report, saying the recommendations and “substance” of the report remain unchanged but they “confirmed some footnotes and references were incorrect.” And the new version of the report added a noteworthy disclosure — that Azure OpenAI was used.
And they’re going to refund some of the money the Australian government paid, saying the “matter has been resolved directly with the client.” But that’s not enough for some. Australian Senator Barbara Pocock wants a full refund, noting Deloitte “misused AI and used it very inappropriately: misquoted a judge, used references that are non-existent.” Pocock continued, “I mean, the kinds of things that a first-year university student would be in deep trouble for.”
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
The post Law Professor Catches Deloitte Using Made-Up AI Hallucinations In Government Report appeared first on Above the Law.
