- PwC Middle East published AI reports with fake citations and broken links
- Four PwC AI reports contained hallucinations verified by GPTZero researchers
- Reports targeted advice on AI, autonomous agents, and electric vehicle futures
It's happened again. Another of the Big Four has been embarrassed by AI. This time it's PwC. The consulting giant's Middle East division published AI reports riddled with fake citations, broken links and even studies that appear to never have existed.
At least four PwC Middle East AI reports were packed with AI hallucinations, an investigation by researchers at GPTZero found. These findings were also independently verified.
These reports aimed to advise businesses and governments on AI, autonomous agents and the future of electric vehicles.
The reports had fake footnotes, broken links and claims that couldn't be verified, and even an academic paper that simply doesn't exist. GPTZero's earlier investigations forced Big Four rivals KPMG and EY to retract reports that also had AI hallucinations.
Researchers even found one source pointing to a teenage blogger with a handful of followers on Medium to back a so-called AI success story.
And in another case, a citation URL actually contained "utm_source=chatgpt.com".
PwC said it's updating a limited number of citations and takes the accuracy of its research seriously. The biggest irony here is that these consulting giants helping clients adopt AI are increasingly becoming examples of why AI still needs careful human fact-checking.
To learn about the earlier KPMG AI faux pas watch the video below:
