South Africa’s attempt to become Africa’s leading artificial intelligence hub has hit an embarrassing roadblock after the government withdrew its draft national AI policy over fabricated academic references, some suspected to have been generated using AI tools.
The controversy has now delayed the country’s long-awaited AI framework until January 2027, exposing the risks governments face as they race to regulate a technology that is evolving faster than many institutions can manage.
The incident is significant far beyond South Africa.
Across the world, governments are scrambling to build rules around generative AI as the technology reshapes finance, healthcare, education, cybersecurity, manufacturing and public administration.
But South Africa’s policy collapse now shows a growing global problem: authorities trying to govern AI are increasingly vulnerable to the same technology’s flaws, including hallucinations, fabricated information and weak verification systems.
