Associated Incidents
Deloitte Australia wrote a major report for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) about the legal basis for AI-based automated welfare system penalties. DEWR paid Deloitte AUD$439,000. [report, PDF; tender]
But Deloitte cited a pile of references that don't ... exist.
The academics Deloitte cited are not happy. Professor Lisa Burton Crawford said: [AFR]
It was not always clear to me how the research that I have published evidences the propositions for which I was cited. It is concerning to see research attributed to me in this way.
A lot of the references were clearly chatbot fakes --- titles and details that were the right shape, but just didn't exist. Dr Chris Rudge said:
AI use is a strong hypothesis based on the nature of the references, there is not much other explanation. You can hardly type out incorrect titles accidentally.
Deloitte "stands by our work and the findings in the report" and "the content of each article referenced is accurate." Though Deloitte would not answer if it had used AI.
Deloitte gave the Australian Financial Review a list of corrected references. These new references turned out not to support the claims they were used for. [AFR]
This is what you see when the chatbot abuser gets busted, then tries to do corrections by asking the chatbot. Now, you might think that was stupidly incompetent.
The DEWR "continues to investigate these claims and has sought urgent advice from Deloitte on these matters".