Tromsø school closure proposal cites non-existent sources
A Tromsø municipality proposal for school closures cited 18 sources, of which only 7 could be verified. The proposal reportedly attributed fabricated books to prominent education researchers Thomas Nordahl and Peder Haug, who denied writing them. The municipality used AI as a tool in drafting the knowledge base but failed to quality-check the output.
What happened
Tromsø kommune's proposal for a new school and kindergarten structure, which proposed closing eight schools, cited 18 sources. Of those 18 references, only 7 could be verified by journalists.
The proposal attributed a 2018 book titled 'Kvalitet i skolen: Læring, trivsel og relasjoner' (published by Cappelen Damm) to professor Thomas Nordahl, but Nordahl stated he had never written it. Similarly, the proposal cited professor Peder Haug as author of a 2024 book 'Inkludering og kvalitet i barnehage og skole', but Haug said he had never written it, though he did publish a book titled 'Inkludering' in 2014.
Kommunedirektøren Stig Tore Johnsen acknowledged that AI was used as a tool in drafting the knowledge base, but stated that humans had written the document. Haug expressed suspicion that the authors had used ChatGPT or another AI tool without quality-checking the output.
Reported impact
The false citations undermined the credibility of the municipal proposal, with researchers stating that if the fabricated sources were used as arguments for closing or centralizing schools, it represented a significant misuse of their work.
The municipality decided to suspend the consultation process for the proposal for six months to address the errors. Kommunedirektøren stated: 'Such errors must not happen,' while work on a new school structure was to continue.
Index analysis
Researcher Jonas Stein characterized the incident as 'perhaps the first major AI scandal in the Norwegian public sector,' comparing it to documented cases of AI-generated citations appearing in student work, where ChatGPT produces plausible-sounding but false references.
Governance controls
The municipality had not implemented quality assurance procedures to verify sources cited in AI-assisted documents before submitting the proposal. The errors were discovered only after journalists and affected researchers reviewed the source list.
Following the scandal, the project leader Arne Christian Vangdal stated the municipality would investigate what happened and provide a fuller response.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
This record was researched and written by the Index from original reporting. Its sources are still being verified by an editor, and they are listed here once that check is complete. Until then the record carries no reviewer.