One of KPMG Australia’s partners was fined a whopping AUD10,000 ($7,000) for allegedly using AI tools to cheat on an internal AI training course.
The Financial Times said that the partner, whose identity has not been disclosed, was compelled to retake the exam. To assist in answering questions about artificial intelligence in general, they purportedly posted the training materials to an AI platform.
Over two dozen staff were detected utilizing AI technologies to take internal tests this fiscal year, according to the FT report that cited KMPG.
Concerns regarding the use of AI-powered cheating at prestigious accounting companies have grown as a result of these events. The present event is the most recent instance of a professional business clashing with its staff over the use of AI to pass internal exams or complete customer work.
KPMG discovered the cheating using its own AI detection tool, according to the Australian Finance Review, which broke the story first.
According to FT, Andrew Yates, the CEO of KPMG Australia, stated, “Like other organizations, we have been dealing with the role and application of AI as it relates to internal training and testing.”
“Given how rapidly society has adopted it, it is a really difficult thing to get on top of,” he continued. According to Yates, the business wants to improve its strategy in a few of its regimes.
Some people violate our policy because of the frequent usage of these technologies. We take it seriously when they do. Additionally, we are investigating methods to improve our strategy inside the present self-reporting system.
Last week, Australian Greens Senator Barbara Peacock brought attention to a “misdemeanor” at KPMG during a Senate investigation into the industry’s governance.
Peacock described the inability to take further action as “very disheartening.” “We have a toothless system where con artists get away with so much,” she added.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the nation’s business watchdog, declared that it had verified the KPMG event. Nevertheless, it refrained from acting until the partner was the target of legal action by the accountants’ professional trade authority.
Scandals of cheating alarm the Big Four
The major four accounting companies have been dealing with instances of deception in recent years.
KPMG Australia received a AUD615,000 fine in 2021 for “widespread” malpractice. Authorities discovered that more than 1,100 of the company’s partners had engaged in “improper answer-sharing” during exams intended to evaluate competence and honesty.
Due to cheating scandals in recent years, all four of the big four firms—Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG—have faced sanctions in various nations.
AI encourages breaking the law
With AI taking over the globe, there are now more ways to break the law.
Last year, the biggest accounting association in the world, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, announced that it would no longer accept online exams and that accounting students would now have to take them in person. According to the organization, it would be too challenging to determine whether someone has used artificial intelligence to cheat on an exam otherwise.
Important Takeaways
In prestigious accounting firms, the use of AI for cheating is becoming a serious problem.
KPMG’s measures are part of a larger trend of businesses finding it difficult to handle wrongdoing involving AI.
The circumstance calls into doubt the efficacy of the professional sector’s current governance and testing systems.
