South Africa’s Communications and Digital Technologies Minister, Solly Malatsi, has pulled the draft national artificial intelligence policy from public consultation after the department confirmed it contained fabricated references, an error that has triggered a wider debate about whether government can credibly regulate a technology it may already have used carelessly in drafting its own rules.
According to the department, the policy’s publication for comment was followed by scrutiny that exposed fictitious academic sources in the reference list. Malatsi said the problem went beyond a simple editorial slip and damaged the draft’s integrity and credibility. He added that the most likely explanation was that AI-generated citations had been inserted without proper checking, a warning that has sharpened attention on the risks of relying on the same tools a policy is meant to govern.
The withdrawal is especially awkward because the draft had only recently cleared cabinet and was opened for public submissions on 10 April, with comments due by 10 June. Reports from several South African and international outlets say the document was meant to provide the country’s first formal framework for AI governance, innovation and responsible deployment, while also dealing with issues such as economic transformation, talent development and oversight. Instead, the episode has turned into a test of ministerial accountability.
Malatsi said the department would move to internal consequence management for those responsible for drafting and quality assurance, while insisting that the episode should reinforce, rather than weaken, the case for human oversight in AI use. For critics, however, the damage is already political as well as procedural: a policy intended to set standards for trustworthy AI has itself become a case study in what happens when verification fails.
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Source: Noah Wire Services