Education Report on Ethical AI Cites Over 15 Fake Sources
▼ Summary
– A major education reform document in Newfoundland and Labrador contains at least 15 fabricated citations, suspected to be generated by an AI language model.
– The 418-page report, titled “A Vision for the Future,” serves as a 10-year roadmap for modernizing the province’s education system and was released by professors and the education minister.
– One fake citation references a non-existent National Film Board movie, which was copied directly from a University of Victoria style guide that uses fictional examples for formatting instruction.
– An assistant professor found numerous sources in the report could not be located despite extensive searches, noting that fabricating sources is a telltale sign of artificial intelligence.
– Fabricated citations are a known problem with AI language models, often slipping past human review due to their proper formatting and contextual appropriateness.
A major education reform document intended to guide policy in Newfoundland and Labrador has come under scrutiny after it was found to contain at least fifteen fabricated citations, raising serious questions about the use of artificial intelligence in official reports. The document, titled “A Vision for the Future: Transforming and Modernizing Education,” was released on August 28 as a comprehensive ten-year plan for updating the province’s educational institutions. Prepared over eighteen months and presented by Memorial University professors Anne Burke and Karen Goodnough, alongside Education Minister Bernard Davis, the 418-page report ironically advocates for ethical AI integration in schools while itself appearing to rely on unverified, and possibly AI-generated, content.
One particularly glaring example involves a reference to a National Film Board production from 2008 named “Schoolyard Games.” A spokesperson for the board confirmed that no such film exists. Further investigation revealed that the citation was lifted verbatim from a University of Victoria style guide, which explicitly states that many of its examples are fictional and intended only to illustrate proper citation formatting. Despite this clear disclaimer, the fabricated reference was included in the provincial education report as though it were a legitimate academic source.
Aaron Tucker, an assistant professor at Memorial University specializing in the history of AI in Canada, expressed concern after failing to locate numerous sources cited in the document. Despite thorough searches across academic databases, library archives, and general web sources, many references simply did not exist. Tucker noted that the invention of sources is a recognized hallmark of certain AI systems, which often generate plausible but entirely fictitious citations. While he stopped short of definitively attributing the errors to an AI tool, he emphasized that such fabrication aligns with known limitations of generative language models.
The incident underscores a persistent challenge associated with AI-generated content: its tendency to produce convincing yet false information, especially in technical or scholarly contexts. Properly formatted and contextually appropriate citations can easily deceive reviewers who do not verify each source, allowing errors to propagate into official documents. This case serves as a cautionary example for institutions embracing AI tools, highlighting the critical need for human oversight and rigorous fact-checking in the production of policy and academic materials.
(Source: Ars Technica)
