diff --git a/tests/unit/vertexai/test_evaluation.py b/tests/unit/vertexai/test_evaluation.py
index 48fc5683e3..e2c8c0bb7f 100644
--- a/tests/unit/vertexai/test_evaluation.py
+++ b/tests/unit/vertexai/test_evaluation.py
@@ -2925,6 +2925,9 @@ def test_rubric_generation_parsing_additional_fields(self):
             critique_metric=metric_prompt_template_examples.MetricPromptTemplateExamples.Pointwise.COHERENCE,
         )
         dataset_with_rubrics = rbm.generate_rubrics(_TEST_EVAL_DATASET_PROMPT_RESPONSE)
-        expected = _EXPECTED_EVAL_DATASET_PROMPT_RESPONSE_WITH_RUBRICS
+        expected = _EXPECTED_EVAL_DATASET_PROMPT_RESPONSE_WITH_RUBRICS.copy()
         expected["desc"] = ["test_desc", "test_desc", "test_desc"]
+        expected["desc"] = expected["desc"].astype(object)
+
+        assert dataset_with_rubrics.equals(expected)
         assert dataset_with_rubrics.equals(expected)
diff --git a/vertexai/evaluation/utils.py b/vertexai/evaluation/utils.py
index 05148d1623..564ecb9b1d 100644
--- a/vertexai/evaluation/utils.py
+++ b/vertexai/evaluation/utils.py
@@ -209,7 +209,7 @@ def _load_jsonl(filepath: str) -> "pd.DataFrame":
         )
     if filepath.startswith(_GCS_PREFIX):
         file_contents = _read_gcs_file_contents(filepath)
-        return pd.read_json(file_contents, lines=True)
+        return pd.read_json(io.StringIO(file_contents), lines=True)
     else:
         with open(filepath, "r") as f:
             return pd.read_json(f, lines=True)