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Another day, another published hallucination. This time, it was EY Canada, in its 44-page report ‘Points of Attack: Uncovering Cyber Threats and Fraud in Loyalty Systems’, from 2025. The case was picked up by New York firm GPTZero, which makes AI detection software, and it said on May 14 that the report was a “collage of vibe citations, misattributions, fake statistics and AI written text”. It also said it had coined the term “vibe citing”. GPTZero said the report may have passed without comment in Canada, but had been referenced by the Canberra Times, which is syndicated to more than 60 newspapers in Australia. A report that is published online “is essentially a form of data injection into the pool of knowledge that is the internet”, said GPTZero, but when a report includes false information, it can “poison the well” for researchers, particularly if it’s published by a reputable firm and on a popular website. It added that it had set up an automated pipeline to scan reports from big consulting firms to detect vibe citations, and that vibe citing was “already endemic” among major firms. EY yanked the report from its website and said in reported comments that it would be looking into the circumstances that led to the report’s publication. It added that EY Canada “takes the accuracy of all the content we publish seriously”.

The ink was hardly dry on South Africa’s Draft National AI Policy, when it, too, was found to be littered with hallucinations, first noticed by News24. It was withdrawn on April 26 by communications minister Solly Malatsi. He said the fact that the draft had been published with fake footnotes was an “unacceptable lapse” and proved why vigilance over the use of AI, by people, was critical. As for consequences, two unnamed officials have been suspended. Malatsi has also appointed a panel of technology heavyweights to oversee the re-release of the draft, which will be chaired by Professor Benjamin Rosman, director of Wits’ Mind Institute, computer science professor Vukosi Marivate, at Pretoria University, Alison Gillwald, executive director at Research ICT Africa, Heather Irvine, co-head of Bowmans’ technology sector, Tshepo Feela, National Planning Commission chair, Jabu Mtsweni, head of the Cyber and Information Security Centre at the CSIR, and Lufuno Tshikalange, executive director, GRC, Orizur Consulting Enterprise.