Institute aiming for support for gambling education funding accused of AI ‘slop’ report
An independent senator in Australia, David Pocock, has raised concerns about a gambling education funding report sent to politicians from a University of Sydney-based institute, as he says it “appears to have just been written by AI.”
The report aimed to garner support for a $20 million funding request for gambling education, with the document used to explain the OurFutures Institute’s budget submission for the funding of a gambling prevention education program.
At present, the institute’s website does still have an article dedicated to the federal budget submission, but it features only two short paragraphs before text states: “This post is being updated.”
Gambling education funding submission post ‘is being updated’ by institute
According to The Guardian Australia, who say they analyzed the review, there were at least 21 references throughout the report where the reference link was broken, where the paper referenced didn’t appear to exist at all, or where the paper cited appears to be different to the one hyperlinked.
They also say there were a number of instances where a statement wasn’t supported by the paper referenced.
The publisher has also shared Pocock’s comment on the matter: “I am deeply concerned about this $20m request for public funding and the evidence review it is based on, which appears to just be slop written by AI.
“From my preliminary assessment, the review is full of AI hallucinations, including references to studies that don’t exist and statements presented as fact that are completely false or grossly exaggerated.”
A chief executive of the OurFutures Institute, Ken Wallace, was asked about issues, and he is reported to have said: “An editing tool was only used to reorder references found by our research team.”
“Yesterday, we were informed this resulted in some mismatched, merged or incorrectly formatted citations. As a team that strongly upholds evidence-based approaches, we deeply apologise for this genuine error.”
It’s believed that the institute is working on updating the submission, with corrected versions to be shared to those who originally received the background material too.
In response to the document, independent Senator Kate Chaney also wrote on X: “The gambling lobby is harnessing the worst of AI – if you repeat lies enough, they turn up as plausible references, linked to the Productivity Commission & respected researchers.
“It’s no surprise the gambling lobby supports ‘education’. It puts the onus on young people, not the companies targeting them. If the Government funds this, it will confirm who is pulling the strings.”
Featured Image: Via Ideogram
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