- Journalists from News24 checked the new immigration document and found that 102 out of 148 references are completely fake.
- Two independent law firms will run the disciplinary hearings and check every policy document the department wrote since November 2022.
The Department of Home Affairs has suspended two senior officials. They face action because they used fake AI research to write a major new policy document.
The department sent a chief director home on Thursday. It will officially suspend a second director on Monday.
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The trouble started when News24 journalists looked closely at the new immigration white paper. They discovered that a long list of research used to support the policy was completely fake.
The journalists checked 148 references in the document. They found that 102 of them were fake or simply did not exist.
The fake sources included the wrong authors and fake academic titles. They also included internet links that led nowhere.
Jonathan Shock from the University of Cape Town checked the document.
“It is very likely that these are AI hallucinations, and that an AI tool has been used to compile the reference list,” Shock said.
He said that because there are so many fake references, the authors probably used the real ones incorrectly.
This is not the first time this has happened. Just last week, the government scrapped a different policy after getting caught doing the exact same thing.
The Department of Home Affairs has hired two independent law firms. These lawyers will handle the disciplinary hearings for the two bosses.
The lawyers will also check every policy document the department has written since November 2022. This is the date when AI writing tools first became widely available.
The department has removed the fake reference list from the white paper. But it said the actual rules in the new policy will not change.
The new policy introduces strict new rules for refugees. It also brings in a new points system for foreigners who want to get South African citizenship.
