Accountant fined for using AI to cheat on exam about AI

A senior accountant has been fined after using artificial intelligence to cheat while completing a training course about AI.A partner at KPMG Australia was handed a A$10,000 (£5,200) fine after putting documents into an AI tool to find answers.It was one of 28 cases of AI cheating that the accountancy firm said it had detected in the last year after introducing new techniques for checking if staff are relying on tools such as ChatGPT.KPMG said the unnamed partner was carrying out AI training last July, which included a manual containing information on how to complete the course. It said the person had uploaded the document into an AI tool, in violation of company policies. The attempt had been discovered by the firm’s own AI detection tools.An internal investigation concluded that the partner should be fined more than A$10,000, which would be taken out of their future pay.The matter is also under investigation by Chartered Accountants ANZ, the professional accounting body.Andrew Yates, KPMG Australia’s chief executive, said: “It’s a very hard thing to get on top of given how quickly society has embraced it.”Speaking to the Australian Financial Review, he said: “As soon as we introduced monitoring for AI in internal testing in 2024, we found instances of people using AI outside our policy. “We followed with a significant firm-wide education campaign and have continued to introduce new technologies to block access to AI during testing.”AI is causing ruptures across accountancy and consultancy firms, with growing concerns about the technology being used to cheat during exams and the potential for it to significantly cut the cost of company audits.KPMG International, the umbrella organisation that oversees the company’s local partnerships, recently argued that its own auditor, Grant Thornton, should give it a significant discount since AI can now be used to automate a substantial amount of audit work.Last October, Deloitte’s Australian division said it would refund the Australian government after charging A$440,000 for a report that turned out to be generated by AI and contained several errors.KPMG Australia said it would include details of how often its staff had been caught using AI to cheat on exams in its annual report. The other 27 staff who were caught were below manager level.Multiple industries have been hit by major stock market sell-offs in recent weeks as a result of the perceived growing threat from AI tools.They have included enterprise software companies, financial managers and price comparison websites.In Britain, the Financial Reporting Council has put auditors under pressure to make sure they are not allowing AI to be used to cheat during exams, with firms warning staff that they could face dismissal over incidents.