Last month, South Africa became the first government to withdraw an official document explicitly due to AI hallucinations, retracting its Draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy just 17 days after its publication. This historic policy aimed to establish a formal ethics board for AI, but was marred when it was revealed that at least six of the sources listed were fabricated by AI tools, as identified by the civil rights group Article One. The incident has raised significant concerns about the lack of mandatory human verification in governmental documents, which allows for AI errors to compromise factual integrity and accountability.

Deloitte: Deloitte is a multinational professional services firm providing consulting, audit, and advisory services to governments worldwide. It has acknowledged using generative AI tools in commissioned government reports, resulting in inaccurate citations and fabricated quotes in projects for Australia and Canada. These cases led to report corrections, partial refunds, and heightened scrutiny over AI verification processes in public contracts.
South Africa: South Africa is a southern African nation actively developing national policies for digital technologies and AI governance through its Department of Communications and Digital Technologies. Last month, the government withdrew its Draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy just 17 days after publication upon discovering multiple fictitious sources generated by AI hallucinations. This incident prevented South Africa from becoming the first African nation outside the West to establish a formal AI ethics board.
Solly Malatsi: Solly Malatsi is South Africa’s Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, appointed following the 2024 general election to drive digital transformation and infrastructure initiatives. He issued a statement on the withdrawal of the draft AI policy, citing unverified AI-generated citations as the cause and promising consequence management for the drafting and quality assurance teams.

`json
{
“Policy Withdrawal”: “South Africa retracted an official document due to AI hallucinations in its citations.”,
“Verification Need”: “Researchers warn of the lack of mandatory human checks, allowing AI hallucinations to affect the accuracy of official publications.”,
“Consulting Scrutiny”: “Deloitte acknowledged generative AI errors in government reports, leading to updates in procurement rules for AI disclosure and risk assessments.”
}
`