Mróz-Gorgoń on AI-error report: a badly attached file, I didn't check

Barbara Mróz-Gorgoń, the former government commissioner for promoting Poland, has spoken out after the scandal over the report "Polaków portret własny" ("Poles' Self-Portrait"), which contained errors typical of AI hallucinations. In an interview with Onet, covered on October 19 by Rzeczpospolita and Wirtualna Polska, Mróz-Gorgoń claims the document was a rough draft attached to an email by mistake.

What Mróz-Gorgoń says about the report

According to Rzeczpospolita, the report was published on the website of the Marka Polska Think Tank Foundation. Among other things, it claimed that Katowice lies in northern Poland and used the odd phrase "traditional breadiness".

Mróz-Gorgoń argues it was "one badly attached file in an email" that ended up on the website last November. As Rzeczpospolita reports, Mróz-Gorgoń adds that nobody was interested in it at the time.

I'm very sorry, I didn't check. - Barbara Mróz-Gorgoń, former government commissioner for promoting Poland (quoted by WP)

AI and trusting speed

The former commissioner admitted that artificial intelligence was used in the work, while insisting the research followed social science methodology and was carried out reliably. Mróz-Gorgoń knows that AI hallucinates and says that after returning to university, students will be encouraged to be prudent and to check everything three times.

Asked whether AI or laziness was to blame, Mróz-Gorgoń rejected the latter. According to WP, the former commissioner sees it as a case of "too much trust in the speed" of work. The Onet journalist noted that reducing Mróz-Gorgoń's body of work to the scandal over an AI-generated report happened "not without reason".

Money and the foundation

Mróz-Gorgoń says the Ministry of Sport commissioned a specific piece of work and paid twice PLN 30,000 gross for more than half a year. Rzeczpospolita points out that the ministry paid for a different report than "Polaków portret własny". Mróz-Gorgoń asks that the public hear this clearly.

The foundation was meant to be, in Mróz-Gorgoń's words, a "WOŚP" (the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity) for promoting the Poland brand. Mróz-Gorgoń stresses that the foundation was not set up alone and that it had a foundation board. It is now being liquidated.

What comes next

WP writes that the political career is over and that Mróz-Gorgoń is on sick leave. Mróz-Gorgoń says that after twenty years of academic work, the reputation was destroyed in two days. The sources we rely on are accounts of the interview, not a full transcript, so the statements should be treated as Mróz-Gorgoń's version of events.