South Africa has pulled its draft national AI policy after discovering that it was citing sources that exist only in the fertile imagination of a chatbot. The country's Department of Communications and Digital Technologies confirmed over the weekend that the draft, which had already cleared Cabinet and was out for public comment, included "various fictitious sources" in its reference list.  Communications minister Solly Malatsi said the department rechecked the draft after reports flagged fake references and found some citations were indeed made up, prompting its withdrawal. "This failure is not a mere technical issue but has compromised the integrity and credibility of the draft policy," he said in a post on X , adding that AI-generated citations appear to have slipped in without anyone checking them.…