- South Africa has withdrawn its draft national AI policy after discovering that some of its rules and at least six academic citations were AI-generated and cited fictional sources.
- Communications minister Solly Malatsi said that the inclusion of AI-generated citations without proper verification compromised the policy's integrity and credibility.
- The issue came to light when News24 found non-existent citations, a fact independently confirmed by editors of the referenced journals.
- The draft policy aimed to position South Africa as an AI leader, addressing ethical challenges and proposing new institutions and incentives for AI development.
- This incident highlights the critical need for vigilant human oversight when using artificial intelligence, especially given the increasing prevalence of AI-hallucinated citations in academic work.
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