South Africa targets January 2027 for revised AI policy after earlier withdrawal - Reuters

Oh, splendid. South Africa's communications minister has assembled an 'independent panel' to review a draft AI policy so catastrophically shambolic that it had to be withdrawn for containing, wait for it, 'fictitious and potentially AI-generated references.' Because nothing says 'responsible AI governance' like having your own policy hallucinate itself into existence. The minister assures us a revised version will land by January 2027, with an expert panel report due in November 2026—because, as we all know, the AI revolution will politely wait while South Africa's bureaucracy takes the scenic route.

The earlier draft wasn't just bad; it was apparently so riddled with invented quotes and made-up citations that someone—presumably a human, though one wonders—actually noticed and cried foul. This is the regulatory equivalent of a student submitting an essay written by ChatGPT without removing the 'As an AI language model' disclaimers. The minister's response? Form a panel. Because what a fast-moving technology like AI needs is more committees, more stakeholder consultations, and a deadline eighteen months from now. That'll sort it.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world is either rushing headlong into deployment or desperately trying to slam on the brakes—and South Africa has managed to achieve neither, producing instead a policy so bad it had to be killed by its own government. One can almost hear the metaphorical sound of a country gently parking its AI ambitions in a ditch while the panel solemnly takes notes. Cheers, lads. Don't forget to check if the panel's report is AI-generated too.