AI Chatbot Reveals Real Victim's Name in Workplace Sexual Harassment Training
A psychosocial safety trainer used Microsoft's Copilot chatbot to create training scenarios at Bunbury Regional Prison, but the chatbot generated real names and details from an active Federal Court case, including the full name of a woman alleging sexual harassment at that workplace. The Department of Justice had commissioned the training but said it was unaware the victim's name would be revealed.
What happened
Psychosocial safety trainer Charlotte Ingham used Microsoft's Copilot chatbot to generate examples of psychosocial hazards for a workplace training course at Bunbury Regional Prison. When she presented the slides, Ingham discovered that the chatbot had generated a scenario featuring the full name 'Bronwyn Hendry', a real former employee of the prison.
Bronwyn Hendry is the complainant in an active Federal Court case against the Department of Justice and senior staff members at Bunbury prison alleging sexual harassment and bullying. The ABC independently verified that when requesting a fictional case study scenario of sexual harassment at a regional WA prison, Copilot again provided the full names of both Hendry and the prison's current superintendent, along with real details from the active Federal Court case.
Reported impact
Ms Hendry stated that the use of her experiences in the training felt 'contradictory' and 'very triggering' given that she was actively fighting to prove her allegations in Federal Court. She argued the Department of Justice should have conducted checks and balances before commissioning the training.
Index analysis
A Microsoft spokeswoman stated that Copilot may 'include names and scenarios available through search' if prompted to create a case study based on a specific situation. The ABC's independent testing found that Copilot's generated scenarios included a disclaimer that 'this case study is entirely fictional, but it draws from real-world incidents'.
Governance controls
The Department of Justice said it had not known Ms Hendry's name would be used in the training materials and that the content regarding her was limited to publicly available information. The department stated it was 'disappointed this incident occurred' and was 'taking appropriate measures to ensure that training will not be delivered in this manner again'.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.