KPMG Partner Fined Over Using AI To Pass AI Test (ft.com) 37
A partner at KPMG Australia has been fined $7,000 by the Big Four firm after using AI tools to cheat on an internal training course about using AI. From a report: The unnamed partner was forced to redo the test after uploading training materials into an AI platform to help answer questions on the use of the fast-evolving technology.
More than two dozen staff have been caught over this financial year using AI tools for internal exams, according to KPMG. The incident is the latest example of a professional services company struggling with staff using artificial intelligence to cheat on exams or when producing work for clients. "Like most organisations, we have been grappling with the role and use of AI as it relates to internal training and testing," said Andrew Yates, chief executive of KPMG Australia. "It's a very hard thing to get on top of given how quickly society has embraced it."
More than two dozen staff have been caught over this financial year using AI tools for internal exams, according to KPMG. The incident is the latest example of a professional services company struggling with staff using artificial intelligence to cheat on exams or when producing work for clients. "Like most organisations, we have been grappling with the role and use of AI as it relates to internal training and testing," said Andrew Yates, chief executive of KPMG Australia. "It's a very hard thing to get on top of given how quickly society has embraced it."
Non-paywall link (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Non-paywall link (Score:3)
That's a "gives us all your data and let us and our partners track everything you do" or "paywall". So not much better.
Try this one: http://archive.today/2026.02.1... [archive.today]
using the test result to train AI (Score:2)
It's highly likely that KPMG is using the test taker's entries to train an AI.
Here is the same business case given to 500 people, write answers to these X questions, write a business plan, give a staffing plan, budget, timeline, milestones, success criteria, etc.
Do this enough times and you have an AI which can pre-work inbound consulting jobs and need less or lower paid staff to do the work.
Big Four (Score:2)
Curious: How many of the typical denizens of this site know who or what "the Big Four" are?
I have no idea other than the contextual clues in the post.
Re: (Score:3)
Err we've run stories referencing the Big Four all the time. Like a lot. We only just talked about the Big Four 2 weeks ago https://slashdot.org/story/26/... [slashdot.org]. 3 weeks ago the Big Four were referenced in a review of the music industry https://entertainment.slashdot... [slashdot.org] Heck just a few months ago we were talking about OpenAI's auditors https://slashdot.org/story/25/... [slashdot.org] A month prior we were talking about Deloitte in Australia which also mentioned the Big Four https://slashdot.org/story/25/... [slashdot.org]
I think most peopl
Re: (Score:2)
Curious: How many of the typical denizens of this site know who or what "the Big Four" are?
Err we've run stories referencing the Big Four all the time. Like a lot. We only just talked about the Big Four 2 weeks ago https://slashdot.org/story/26/... [slashdot.org].
That /. story mentions that the firm is one of the Big Four, but does not say what the Big Four is, or what the members are.
3 weeks ago the Big Four were referenced in a review of the music industry https://entertainment.slashdot... [slashdot.org]
That's the big four academy awards-- a completely different "Big Four" that has nothing to do with this one.
Heck just a few months ago we were talking about OpenAI's auditors https://slashdot.org/story/25/... [slashdot.org]
Bingo-- three months ago the Big Four accounting firms were mentioned in the second paragraph of a summary
A month prior we were talking about Deloitte in Australia which also mentioned the Big Four https://slashdot.org/story/25/... [slashdot.org]
This one at least states that "The Big Four" refers to accountancy firms... but doesn't say which firms they are.
I think most people here know what we are talking about, especially in an article about one of the largest professional services companies in the world, you can probably takes a guess that the Big Four, means them and 3 of their competitors.
You might think so, but you would be wrong.
Here's the real "B
Re: (Score:2)
That /. story mentions that the firm is one of the Big Four, but does not say what the Big Four is, or what the members are.
Look, we expect a base level of intelligence here. If we're talking about a professional services company being part of the Big Four it's time you learned to pick up a spoon and feed yourself and consider that the Big Four is a noun, not an adjective, capitalised to be a proper noun and thus you should be able to conclude the company under discussion is one of a group of 4 and the other 3 are their competitors.
You got me on the second link though. But curiously where did you post in that story asking what t
Re:Big Four (Score:5, Funny)
Curious: How many of the typical denizens of this site know who or what "the Big Four" are?
Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth. Next question?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
How does this not win the Internet today? BTW, ran across an article somewhere this morning that Dave Mustaine thinks it's time for a new Big Four to emerge.
Dave Mustaine's got some serious "time for your nap, gramps" energy going on these days. Have you seen his latest videos, where he's essentially barely able to stand fully upright, yet is pretending to be a brawler? It's pretty cringy, even for Dave.
As much as I'd love to see a new Big Four emerge, I think heavy music has passed into a different realm these days. It's even more underground than it was back in the 80s, and while there is a ton of talent out there, I don't know that any band has *it* when it
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed. I saw a Youtube short of him talking about tracks on "Farewell my love" earlier this month and I'm pretty sure he went to another place (maybe into a coma) for about 2 seconds. Very lethargic in his responses.
Fans are theorizing the retirement may be due to him knowing he's on borrowed time already. I don't wish ill on the guy, and it's cool he wants to go do the whole tour thing one last time, but I hope he's more energetic on stage than he's appeared to be in his interviews. Seeing Megadeth should be hype, not, "Oh shit, did he just fall asleep up there?"
Re: (Score:2)
Funniest answer, but I never found anything about the historical context here. On the one hand, there is always a "big four" for any domain, but on the other hand the list will change over time. On the third hand, there was a "traditional" big four accounting firms that had become well established over some decades and there was some literature about them, but on the fourth hand I'm sure one of them well belly up in the wake of the Enron fiasco about 25 years ago and on the fifth hand a couple of the others
Re:Big Four (Score:4, Funny)
Eeny Meeny Miney Moe
Re: Big Four (Score:2)
They are like the four horsemen of the apocalypse, yet somehow even worse - and much more boring.
Re: (Score:2)
My neck, my back, my kitty and my crack.
Re: Big Four (Score:2)
The "Big Four" refers to the four largest global accounting and professional services firms:
* Deloitte
* PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
* Ernst & Young (EY)
* KPMG
What? (Score:2)
Their use of AI tools can't serve as proof that they are able to use AI tools?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
On one hand, employers are now mandating that employees used AI, even if they're perfectly happy working w/o it in their daily jobs. Otoh, when they do use it, they now want to ding them for it?
Pick one or the other. Either using AI at all is inappropriate, or if it is appropriate, then let the employee determine how much of AI they want to use in their daily work!
Kobayashi Maru (Score:5, Insightful)
For the non nerds reading this, the Kobayashi Maru is a training exercise in the Star Trek universe designed as a no-win scenario. The goal is to test a cadet's character in the face of certain death. According to canon, James T. Kirk is the only person to ever "beat" the simulation by reprogramming the simulation so that it was possible to rescue the stranded ship. When accused of cheating, Kirk’s logic was that he changed the conditions of the test. In the corporate world, if the goal is "Problem Solving," the person who changes the conditions to find a faster, more accurate solution isn't a cheater - they are an innovator. KPMG failed their own test IMO.
Re: (Score:2)
For the non nerds reading this, the Kobayashi Maru is a training exercise in the Star Trek universe designed as a no-win scenario. The goal is to test a cadet's character in the face of certain death. According to canon, James T. Kirk is the only person to ever "beat" the simulation by reprogramming the simulation so that it was possible to rescue the stranded ship. When accused of cheating, Kirk’s logic was that he changed the conditions of the test. In the corporate world, if the goal is "Problem Solving," the person who changes the conditions to find a faster, more accurate solution isn't a cheater - they are an innovator. KPMG failed their own test IMO.
And remember kiddo's... He wasn't fined for doing it, he was fined for getting caught.
Nothing Left to Teach You (Score:3)
This reminds me of a possibly apocryphal story about a compsci security class. First day of class, the professor walks in, tells the whole class, "Congratulations, you've just failed this class." He then shows them him entering 0s into the database software. "This course is 16 weeks long. Whether you pass or fail is up to you."
Might be smarter, and with more integrity (Score:2)
Considering the average big-four suit-n-tie, I would rather trust the LLM in terms of smart answers and actual integrity.
What goes around... (Score:3)
They took the human out of the training and testing to cut corners, the staff played by the same rules!
Make training a personal experience again and this won't happen
PS: IMHO the partner failed the test because they got caught, part of the test was in fact how to use AI without the clients noticing :-)
Easy answer (Score:3)
All you need to know about using AI (Score:2)
b. Feed the AI a massive prompt
c. Ask it a question.
d. Assume most of the result is biased, distorted or downright hallucination.
--
ClippyAI: The response is flawed, oversimplification and riddled with inaccuracies. Not end-users simply querying tools like me.
Odd (Score:1)
how did they find out? (Score:2)
anyone else wondering how they found out? Was there a common thread that each AI would follow that allowed KPMG to figure out it was AI written?
Requested Firewall logs? or proxy server logs?
The reason I was wondering is are companies now flagging AI written resumes as not legit while putting the resumes through AI to match candidates?