Newfoundland's 10-Year Education Report Calling For Ethical AI Use Contains Over 15 Fake Sources

Newfoundland and Labrador's 10-year Education Accord report (PDF) intended to guide school reform has been found to contain at least 15 fabricated citations, including references to non-existent films and journals. Academics suggest the fake sources may have been generated by AI. 'There are sources in this report that I cannot find in the MUN Library, in the other libraries I subscribe to, in Google searches. Whether that's AI, I don't know, but fabricating sources is a telltale sign of artificial intelligence,' said Aaron Tucker, an assistant professor at Memorial whose current research focuses on the history of AI in Canada. 'The fabrication of sources at least begs the question: did this come from generative AI?' CBC News reports: In one case, the report references a 2008 movie from the National Film Board called Schoolyard Games. The film doesn't exist, according to a spokesperson for the board. But the exact citation used in the report can be found in a University of Victoria style guide -- a document that clearly lists fake references designed as templates for researchers writing a bibliography. 'Many citations in this guide are fictitious,' reads the first page of the document.

'Errors happen. Made-up citations are a totally different thing where you essentially demolish the trustworthiness of the material,' said Josh Lepawsky, the former president of the Memorial University Faculty Association who resigned from the report's advisory board last January, citing a 'deeply flawed process' leading to 'top-down' recommendations. The 418-page Education Accord NL report took 18 months to complete and was unveiled Aug. 28 by its co-chairs Anne Burke and Karen Goodnough, both professors at Memorial's Faculty of Education. The pair released the report alongside Education Minister Bernard Davis. 'We are investigating and checking references, so I cannot respond to this at the moment,' wrote Goodnough in an email declining an interview Thursday.
In a statement, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development said it was aware of a 'small number of potential errors in citations' in the report. 'We understand that these issues are being addressed, and that the online report will be updated in the coming days to rectify any errors.'

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