KPMG Partner Fined $7,000 for Using AI to Pass a Test on AI Ethics
In a striking case of corporate irony, a senior partner at KPMG Australia has been slapped with a A$10,000 (approximately $7,000) fine for using artificial intelligence to cheat on a mandatory internal training test—about artificial intelligence.
The Breach of Ethics by KPMG Senior Partner
The incident occurred during a July 2025 assessment designed to ensure leadership competency in emerging technologies.
According to internal reports, the unnamed partner—a registered company auditor—uploaded the firm’s proprietary training manual into an external AI chatbot to generate the correct answers for the exam.
KPMG’s own AI-detection systems flagged the activity in August, revealing that the partner had verbatim copied the machine-generated responses.
Beyond the financial penalty, which will be deducted from future income, the partner was forced to retake the qualification and self-report the misconduct to Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ).
A Growing “Cheating” Epidemic
The partner was not alone in cutting corners.
KPMG confirmed that 28 staff members have been caught using AI to game internal exams since the start of the current financial year.
While the partner faces the heaviest fine, the other 27 individuals—at manager level or below—have also faced disciplinary action.
KPMG Australia CEO Andrew Yates admitted that policing the boundary between legitimate AI assistance and academic dishonesty is increasingly difficult.
“It’s a very hard thing to get on top of given how quickly society has embraced it,” Andrew stated, noting that the firm is now implementing stricter controls to block AI access during testing environments.
Regulatory and Political Backlash
The scandal has reignited criticism of the “Big Four” accounting firms’ self-regulatory models.
During a recent Senate inquiry, Greens Senator Barbara Pocock described the system as “toothless.”
She questioned why such breaches are handled internally instead of being mandatorily reported to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
This is not KPMG’s first brush with exam fraud.
In 2021, the firm was fined A$615,000. This followed the discovery that more than 1,100 staff members were sharing answers for professional integrity tests.
This latest incident highlights a persistent cultural struggle within the industry.
It reflects the challenge of balancing the push for AI productivity with the necessity of human accountability.
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