The federal government is defending its decision to award a contract worth up to $1.1 million for advice on deploying artificial intelligence to a Canadian branch of Deloitte, a global consulting firm that is under fire for AI-related blunders.
However, Employment and Social Development Canada says there will be consequences if the company violates the conditions of the work.
The department awarded the contract to Deloitte Inc. in September, before the firm acknowledged it relied on AI for research citations in a report it prepared for the government of Newfoundland and Labrador. The firm said it needed to revise that report to correct erroneous citations….