Western Australia’s government is seeking a fast refund from Deloitte over a flawed report on merging three of the state’s universities. The report contained AI-generated references to sources that do not exist, as well as wrong cost totals.
A government spokesperson told Guardian Australia that the state was very disappointed and had written to Deloitte to speed up the refund. The state paid A$166,000 for the study.
Deloitte wrote the cost-benefit analysis for a plan to merge the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, and Murdoch University. Deloitte said in the report that it used generative AI to help gather research, summarise information, and proofread.
Critics first flagged the made-up references earlier in October, starting with a post on Reddit, Times Higher Education reported. At the time, Deloitte called them minor errors, and the government told it to fix and reissue the report.
Since then, Guardian Australia has found sums in the report’s appendix that are wrong. In one case, two costs for a Curtin and UWA merger totalled A$659m, but the report gave A$399m. TNW has not checked the appendix figures.
The government said it had been told the errors do not change the report’s modelling or findings. Deloitte will correct them and reissue the report, the spokesperson said.
Deloitte did not respond to Guardian Australia’s questions.
It is not the first time. In 2025, Deloitte agreed to partly refund Australia’s federal government for an A$440,000 report that also contained AI-generated errors. Rival firms KPMG and PwC have faced similar problems with AI-written reports this year.
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