Last updated: 07 May 2024 02:00 Posted in:
The UK’s accounting watchdog has questioned the Big Four auditing firms and the accountancy bodies about what they are doing to prevent exam sitters from using artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT to cheat.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has quizzed Britain’s biggest auditing firms and professional accountancy bodies amid fears that rule-breakers could use AI to cheat the system, the Daily Telegraph has reported.
The FRC said that it continues to “work closely” with these organisations to ensure they have robust systems in place to detect, monitor and combat any cheating which could undermine the quality of audits.
The newspaper reported that “KPMG UK warns employees before and during mandatory audit training that cheating using AI is not tolerated and rule-breakers are at risk of losing their jobs”.
Deloitte UK also tells students that using AI tools during exams is not permitted and will be considered gross misconduct.
The ICAEW said it proactively works with regulators to monitor exam malpractice risks on an ongoing basis. The institute said that audit exams are completed in a fully-invigilated environment meaning candidates could not cheat using AI chatbots without being detected.
Meanwhile, the FE Week website said it had uncovered “significant evidence of the harm that generative AI is doing to the integrity of assessment, as educators and regulators are left struggling to catch up with the rapid pace of technological change”.
It reported: “Students are now armed with the means to ‘cheat’ their way through almost any non-exam assignment by putting questions to a large language model (LLM) of generative AI such as ChatGPT, Snapchat’s My AI, and a multitude of new AI ‘study aid’ platforms.
“They’re also being exposed to growing numbers of online influencers endorsing these new tools on social media.”
It added: “Some educators are now questioning whether non-exam assessments are fit for purpose, with this summer’s exams series being seen as the first real test of the system against AI.”
And leading accountancy training provider Kaplan is warning students about the dangers of cheating using AI. In a statement on its website it said: “It is important that you submit your own assessment, you do not plagiarise anyone else's work, nor use AI such as ChatGPT to generate an answer or part of an answer, or submit any model answer in lieu of your own.
“If you are deemed to have cheated by either submitting the model answer, using AI to generate an answer or part of an answer, or copying another student then the marker will not mark your paper. The marker will give the assessment a mark of 1. If you have been given a mark of 1, the Student Services team will email to inform you.
“If your studies are sponsored by your employer or you are an apprentice, then your manager will be emailed to be made aware that you have been given a mark of 1 and why. You must take this seriously, as your employer may have their own disciplinary procedures in relation to cheating which could even lead to your dismissal.”
