Deloitte forced to refund Aussie government after admitting it used AI to produce error-strewn report

Date:
Tue, 07 Oct 2025 10:26:00 +0000

Description:
An outsourced government report came back filled with GenAI hallucinations, forcing Deloitte to apologize.

FULL STORY

Deloitte has admitted to using generative AI to produce a report for the Australian government without implementing sufficient safeguards, landing the company in a whole load of trouble.

The report included fake citations, false footnotes and a made-up court
quote, among other blunders, landing Deloitte with a not-so-insignificant voluntary penalty.

Deloitte has agreed to repay the final installment of its AU$440,000
agreement with the governments Department of Employment and Workplace
Relations (DEWR), with the agency fixing the mistakes.

GenAI under fire

DEWR was forced to re-upload the report, removing over a dozen false references, fixing typos and rewriting some sections. Although the agency asserts the core messages remain unchanged, the previously final report
clearly needed some major revisions.

Fake citations from academics Lisa Burton Crawford and Bjrn Regnell were removed, as well as an extract from the Amato vs Commonwealth case attributed to a person who doesnt actually exist.

The updated document now discloses the use of GPT-4o, and while using GenAI
by itself isnt a problem, this case does highlight the need for transparency. This is from a consulting firm that advocates responsible AI.

The updates made in no way impact or affect the substantive content, findings and recommendations in the report, the updated report now reads.

The University of Sydneys Dr Christopher Rudge is credited with identifying
the use of GenAI. You cannot trust the recommendations when the very
foundation of the report is built on a flawed, originally undisclosed, and non-expert methodology, he added (via the Australian Financial Review ).

Deloitte says that the matter has been resolved directly with the client, according to the Financial Times . TechRadar Pro has reached out for further context.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/deloitte-forced-to-refund-aussie-government-afte r-admitting-it-used-ai-to-produce-error-strewn-report

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