A Big Four uses AI to write reports, many fabrications and refunds required, the auditing industry faces a crisis of trust

VTV.vn - One of the "Big Four" auditing industry, Deloitte, refunded part of the money to the Australian Government after a report was found to contain errors created by AI.

Deloitte Australia will refund some of the $440,000 the Australian government paid for a report found to contain multiple errors suspected to have been created by artificial intelligence (AI), including a forged citation from a federal court ruling and non-existent academic papers , AP reported.

The report, prepared by Deloitte for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations ( DEWR ) , was published on the department's website in July. An edited version was republished on October 3 after Chris Rudge , a researcher in health and welfare law at the University of Sydney, said the report was "riddled with fabricated references."

Outside Deloitte's headquarters in Melbourne, Australia (Photo: AP)

Deloitte reviewed the 237-page report and “confirmed that some footnotes and references were inaccurate,” the ministry said.

“ Deloitte has agreed to repay the final payment under the contract ,” DEWR said in a statement on October 7. The specific amount will be announced once the repayment is complete.

When asked to comment on the errors in the report, Deloitte did not respond directly, telling the AP that “ the issue was addressed directly with the client.” Deloitte also did not respond to questions about whether the errors were caused by AI.

The AP said the revised version of the report added a disclosure about the use of the Azure OpenAI AI language system in the drafting process.

According to Chris Rudge, the first version contained up to 20 errors. The first error that caught his attention was the report claiming that Professor Lisa Burton Crawford, a public and constitutional law expert at the University of Sydney, had written a non-existent book , with a title that was outside her area of ​​expertise.

“I knew immediately it was either an AI or the world’s worst kept secret, because I had never heard of the book. It sounded ridiculous,” said Mr. Rudge.

In addition to the fabricated references, Rudge said the report contained a more serious error : misquoting the judge.

“They misquoted a case and made up what the judge said. I think that’s not just an issue for the reputation of academia, but it’s a misreporting of a document that the government can use to make decisions. So I think there needs to be a call for professional care,” Mr Rudge said.

Senator Barbara Pocock , the Australian Greens' public sector spokeswoman, said Deloitte should repay the full $440,000 .

“ Deloitte used AI in a wrong and irresponsible way, misquoting the judge, citing sources that did not exist,” Ms Pocock told ABC .

“These are mistakes that even college freshmen would get into serious trouble for making,” she added.

The incident occurred in the context of consulting giants such as Deloitte, PwC, EY and McKinsey racing to invest in artificial intelligence. Deloitte announced to invest 3 billion USD in AI by 2030, cooperating with Anthropic to deploy new generation language models.

PwC Group invested $1 billion in AI infrastructure and automated auditing services. EY also launched the EY.ai platform worth more than $1.4 billion, while McKinsey developed QuantumBlack AI to support strategic consulting.

In June, the UK Financial Reporting Council, the accounting industry regulator, warned that four major auditing firms were not adequately monitoring the impact of AI and automation technology on audit quality, The Guardian reported.

Source: https://vtv.vn/mot-big-four-dung-ai-viet-bao-cao-nhieu-loi-bia-dat-va-phai-hoan-tien-nganh-kiem-aan-dung-truoc-khung-hoang-niem-tin-100251010105840428.htm