Concerned about “AI bullshit” being used by a University of Sydney-based institute to lobby for $20 million in gambling education funding

Independent senator David Pocock says he is “deeply concerned” that a report sent by a University of Sydney institute to politicians in support of a $20 million funding proposal for gambling education appears to be “simply nonsense written by artificial intelligence”.

Pocock was among at least 10 politicians and officials to whom the OurFutures Institute sent an evidence review on youth gambling in Australia. The report served as a backdrop to the institute’s draft budget to fund a gambling prevention education program for 15- to 20-year-olds.

The director of the OurFutures Institute attributed the errors to the use of a reference “editing tool” and said the claims in the paper were evidence-based and well-founded.

The review analyzed by Guardian Australia contained at least 21 references where the reference link was broken; where the document referenced did not appear to exist at all; or if the cited work appears to be different from the one linked.

There were also several…