Deloitte’s member firm in Australia will pay the government a partial refund for a $290,000 report that contained alleged AI-generated errors, including references to non-existent academic research papers and a fabricated quote from a federal court judgment.
Deloitte did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
The revised version of the report includes a disclosure that a generative AI language system, Azure OpenAI, was used in its creation. It also removes the fabricated quotes attributed to a federal court judge and references to nonexistent reports attributed to law and software engineering experts. Deloitte noted in a “Report Update” section that the updated version, dated September 26, replaced the report published in July.
“The updates made in no way impact or affect the substantive content, findings and recommendations in the report,” Deloitte wrote.
Though the firm will refund its last payment installment to the Australian government, Senator Barbara Pocock, the Australian Greens party’s spokesperson on the public sector, said Deloitte should refund the entire $290,000.
Deloitte “misused AI and used it very inappropriately: misquoted a judge, used references that are non-existent,” Pocock told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “I mean, the kinds of things that a first-year university student would be in deep trouble for.”“The matter has been resolved directly with the client,” a spokesperson from Deloitte Australia told TheAssociated Press.
