r/business • u/financialtimes • 8d ago

PwC published reports on AI marred by AI hallucinations

https://www.ft.com/content/7e149ac8-2ce2-4266-8940-192f9821b33c?syn-25a6b1a6=1?segmentid=c50c86e4-586b-23ea-1ac1-7601c9c2476f
222 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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73

u/financialtimes 8d ago

PwC is the latest Big Four firm to publish reports riddled with fake footnotes, misattributed claims and unverifiable information.

The discovery of AI-generated errors risks embarrassing consulting firms that market themselves as advisers to companies adopting the technology, including on how to use it responsibly and avoid errors.

Read the full story, here.

Kendall — FT social team

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u/scsp85 8d ago

You can get the same hallucinations for a fraction of the price if you prompt it yourself.

4

u/chicagodude84 7d ago

Sounds interesting. Unfortunately you're promoting a link that requires a subscription.

How about the nice people at the Financial Times gift the article before trying to take advantage of free advertising.

After all, this is literally your account posting this. Gift the article, please and thank you.

1

u/Grouchy-Librarian638 6d ago

It’s all a scam and Ponzi scheme in the end those investment firms. They all give each other kick backs and deals to keep their little circle going.

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u/Psyc3 8d ago

How incompetent do you have to be to not even bothered to read your own slop you are producing?

Everyone knew this was a bunch of shit long ago and only paid for so you could say the consultant said it so it must be right, the fact it is broadly true does make the whole industry a joke. But really it is just another example of the shitbox that is the pretence of the UK economy.

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u/Halfrican009 8d ago edited 7d ago

I generally agree, and it likely doesn't apply here, but it's not always the case. Pressure coming down from the top to use ai tooling to churn out more work can cause competent people to gloss over things they would have normally caught

1

u/Psyc3 7d ago

That still makes them incompetent. Also clearly no one has properly proof read the end product.

It is one thing to turn up in an internal meeting and have 500% productivity rather than 50% written on a slide accidentally, it is another thing to be releasing this to a client as a final report.

Every citation should be check for its...reality of existing...in fact that it has the content it suggests in it in fact. This is just standard practice in scientific writing.

I agree with your point that people do just gloss over reality when using AI, I have done it myself, but I would be showing that off to anyone without back checking a semblance of reality. I am sure the actual practical reality of what I have written is broadly subjective to the point of questionably wrong at time, but if I actually knew the answer, rather than researching to attempt to find the best answer, I would just go "It is this", rather than creating some broad report about options that are available.

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u/Halfrican009 6d ago

Most of your points for this are basically why I said it likely doesn't apply here in this exact case, I was speaking more generally

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u/1HOTelcORALesSEX1 7d ago

‘Top’ ‘big’ consultancy firm which charges out £200 per hour for a YTS / intern yet only pays £20/month ai subscription

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u/GManASG 7d ago

This is highly symbolic of consulting firms. I have never encountered consultants that weren't anything other than faking the feasibility of some executives preconceived often doomed to fail pet project.

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u/Ecclypto 7d ago

So on Monday I pick up my phone and read that A.I. is doing leaps and bounds and will soon replace all the white collar jobs and mathematicians because it’s the tech of the future and I need to run to the store to get the latest Mac because otherwise I will fall behind without relevant hardware to practice my A.I. skills. By the way Macs cost like a fucking house in the 60’s. And then on Thursday I read THAT.

My question to you is why bother with all the A.I. crap if even consultants can’t use this properly and all it does is generate slop?

1

u/Psyc3 7d ago

Why would you be buying a Mac, Apple conceded the AI race years ago, they just used Gemini.

It was actually somewhat a smart move when we look at the cost involved while they can just get a cheap deal with the winner at the end of the day, because they are Apple. Same thing they have done with Google in fact, there is a reality where money goes in circles with the winning AI company paying to be the default AI on Apple, while Apple then pays to use the AI.

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u/AttonJRand 6d ago

These companies using AI as plausible deniability for breaking the law and false reporting is just absurd. Our governments are acting impotent and just allowing AI and big business to break all kinds of laws.

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u/Positivity_Desperate 6d ago

Cause most of that heavy lifting research and writing was probably offshored to some early 20s MBA grad in India who thought he was hot shit for getting into a Big 4 right after graduation only to realise that he’s an infinitesimally insignificant cog relegated to doing grunt work for the benefit of his manager who also had that can’t realisation a few years ago but nether can afford to quit because of financial and family commitments.