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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Nick Evershed, Ariel Bogle, Mike Hohnen and Josh Nicholas

‘Scary’: how misinformation and AI hallucinations are infiltrating Australia’s parliament

Illustration of Parliament House, with the shadows filled with binary code
In some cases, committee reports have cited submissions in which the majority of sources appear to be AI-generated – because they do not exist. Composite: Getty Images/Guardian design

Australia’s government inquiry process is supposed to help parliament make better decisions, hearing from experts and constituents alike. But Guardian Australia can reveal that the system is being flooded with AI-generated material, which is inventing studies and attributing nonexistent research to real academics and authors.

In some cases, committee reports have cited submissions in which the majority of sources appear to be AI-generated “hallucinations”, when large language models (LLMs) invent content that looks real but doesn’t actually exist.

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