A high-profile healthcare report commissioned by a provincial government in Canada from consulting giant Deloitte—at a cost of nearly $1.6 million—is currently facing allegations that it contains potential AI-generated errors and fabricated research citations.
This marks the second time this year that Deloitte has been accused of using artificial intelligence to create misleading research and references in a government-commissioned document.
The Allegations: Fake Citations and Non-Existent Papers
The allegations were first raised by The Independent, a Canadian news outlet, concerning a report authored by Deloitte and published by the Department of Health and Community Services. The report covered essential topics, including virtual care, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers, and advice on developing an effective human resource strategy during a time of staff shortage.
The Independent alleges that the report contains at least four references that do not exist.
- Fabricated Research: The consulting firm is accused of including false citations that were allegedly pulled from made-up academic papers.
- Misattributed Authors: The report allegedly attributed papers to real researchers that they had not worked on and even listed the names of researchers who didn’t exist.
The report was reportedly commissioned by the previous government, and the nature of the errors suggests the use of a generative AI tool, which can confidently produce non-existent but realistic-sounding academic sources—a phenomenon often termed “AI hallucination.”
Deloitte’s Response
In response to the allegations, Deloitte Canada issued a public statement through a spokesperson to Fortune, firmly standing by its work while acknowledging minor errors:
“Deloitte Canada firmly stands behind the recommendations put forward in our report.”
The spokesperson admitted that the firm would revise the document:
“We are revising the report to make a small number of citation corrections, which do not impact the report findings. AI was not used to write the report; it was selectively used to support a small number of research citations.”
Recurring Problem for the Consulting Giant
The controversy mirrors a similar incident earlier this year involving Deloitte Australia. The Australian branch of the firm previously agreed to issue a partial refund for a $290,000 report containing alleged AI-generated errors. That 237-page report was originally published on the Australian government’s Department of Employment and Workplace Relations website.