South Africa yanks AI policy after AI-assisted drafting invents citations

The Register · 2 months ago

South Africa withdrew its draft national AI policy after discovering it contained fabricated citations that were generated by a chatbot and not verified by human reviewers. The document included at least six invented references that experts identified as classic AI hallucinations, prompting the minister to acknowledge the failure as a credibility issue and announce consequences for those involved in drafting and approval. The incident demonstrates the necessity of human oversight when using AI in policy development and undermines the government's authority to regulate AI systems.