Deloitte's $1.6M Newfoundland Health Workforce Report Contained AI-Generated False Research Citations
Deloitte's $1.6M health workforce plan contained AI-generated false citations to nonexistent studies, with real researchers denying authorship.
In May 2025, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador released a 526-page Health Human Resources Plan commissioned from Deloitte at a cost of nearly $1.6 million (Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2025). The plan was intended to guide a decade of workforce planning across 21 healthcare occupations.
In November 2025, The Independent (NL) reported that the document contained AI-generated false academic citations (The Independent, 2025). Professor Emerita Martha MacLeod of the University of Northern British Columbia confirmed that a cited paper — "The cost-effectiveness of a rural retention program for registered nurses in Canada" — was "false" and "potentially AI-generated," noting that while her team had done rural nursing research, they had never conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis (The Independent, 2025). Adjunct Professor Gail Tomblin Murphy of Dalhousie University confirmed another cited paper "does not exist," adding that she had only worked with three of the six other authors named in the citation (The Independent, 2025). A third citation, purportedly from the Canadian Journal of Respiratory Therapy, could not be found in academic databases (The Independent, 2025).
Deloitte responded that "AI was not used to write the report" but was "selectively used to support a small number of research citations," and stated it would issue corrections that "do not impact the report findings" (Fortune, 2025). The Premier and Health Minister did not respond to media inquiries. In June 2025 — one month after the report's release — Deloitte had been selected for an additional contract: a core staffing review of nursing resources.
The incident follows a parallel case in 2025 where a Deloitte Australia report on welfare fraud was found to contain a fabricated court quote and nonexistent research, for which Deloitte agreed to a partial refund of approximately US$290,000 (Fortune, 2025). That report's appendix disclosed the use of Azure OpenAI (Fortune, 2025).
Materialized From
Harms
A 526-page government-commissioned health workforce plan, intended to guide a decade of staffing decisions across 21 healthcare occupations in Newfoundland and Labrador, contained AI-generated false academic citations — including papers that real researchers confirmed do not exist, undermining the evidentiary basis for provincial health policy.
Real researchers were falsely attributed authorship of nonexistent papers. Professor Emerita Martha MacLeod (UNBC) and Professor Gail Tomblin Murphy (Dalhousie) were named as authors of AI-generated false citations, damaging their professional reputations and lending false credibility to policy recommendations.
Evidence
3 reports
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Investigation identifying AI-generated false citations and researcher denials
- Deloitte caught with fabricated, AI-generated research in million-dollar report for Canada government Primary source
Deloitte's admission of selective AI use and parallel Australian incident
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Official release date and context of the commissioned report
Record details
Editorial Assessment assessed
A major consulting firm used AI to generate research citations in a $1.6 million government health policy document, some of which were found to be false (Fortune, 2025; The Independent, 2025). The incident illustrates how LLM confabulation can reach consequential policy decisions through established institutional channels.
Entities Involved
AI Systems Involved
Generative AI tool likely used to produce the AI-generated false research citations found in Deloitte's health workforce report
Taxonomyassessed
AIID: Incident #1286
Changelog
| Version | Date | Change |
|---|---|---|
| v1 | Mar 8, 2026 | Initial publication based on AIID cross-reference scan |
| v2 | Mar 11, 2026 | Neutrality and factuality review: corrected Deloitte Australia timeline (August 2025, not July); corrected refund amount (partial refund of AUD $440,000 contract, not AUD $290,000 — the record had confused USD equivalent with AUD); removed three fabricated policy recommendation attributions (The Independent reported but didn't recommend disclosure requirements; TBS Directive applies to federal administrative decisions not consulting contracts; Prof. MacLeod confirmed false citation but didn't recommend professional standards). |