The cases / Government / education
Tromsø's school-closure report: 11 of 18 sources were fake
What the AI said
A source list of 18 references supporting the proposal to close eight schools, including sources the employee had asked ChatGPT to find in support of closures.
What was actually true
Only 7 of the 18 references could be traced; 11 were fabricated.
Cost or impact
An external review by PwC found no evidence the fake sources affected the proposal, and judged the municipality not mature enough to use AI. The ChatGPT logs (673 pages) were released to the press through the county governor (Statsforvalteren i Troms og Finnmark).
Who caught it
iTromsø (local newspaper).
Check that would have caught it Our analysis
source citation. Asking a model for sources that support a conclusion you've already chosen is the failure. Find the sources first.
This is our judgment, not something the sources say. How we assign it.
Sources
- nrk.nohttps://www.nrk.no/tromsogfinnmark/ki-skandalen-i-tromso_-ansatt-ba-om-kilder-som-stotter-skolenedleggelser-1.17582590
- tv2.nohttps://www.tv2.no/nyheter/innenriks/itromso-kommunen-brukte-fiktiv-forskning-i-skolesak/17595021/
- tromso.kommune.nohttps://www.tromso.kommune.no/nyheter/2025/12/ny-barnehage-og-skolestruktur-granskes-og-ki-bruk-undersokes
Links last checked Oct 24, 2026. If something here is wrong, send a correction.