- Two South African government agencies, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies and the Department of Home Affairs, have suspended a total of four officials.
- The cause was AI policy documents containing “non-existent” academic citations, suspected to be generated by AI (hallucination).
- The draft national AI policy was withdrawn from public consultation after at least six fake references were discovered.
- Another document regarding immigration and citizenship was found to have similar errors despite having high-level approval.
- The government admitted that the uncontrolled use of AI has compromised the integrity of the documents.
- Independent law firms have been hired to investigate and review all documents since 2022.
- Authorities will implement mandatory AI disclosure and verification processes in document approval.
- Minister Leon Schreiber called for AI controls to be applied across the entire government.
- The incident raises concerns about the reliability of public policies if AI is misused.
- Urgent need: establishing mechanisms to detect hallucinations and clear accountability when AI causes errors.
📌 Conclusion: Four South African government officials were suspended and the draft national AI policy was withdrawn from public consultation after at least six fake references, suspected to be AI-generated, were discovered. The incident demonstrates the serious risks of uncontrolled AI use in policy-making. Just a few fake citations were enough to cause national documents to be retracted and officials suspended. This emphasizes that AI needs strict supervision, with clear verification processes and accountability to protect public trust.
