A new PhD study is developing artificial intelligence to detect misinformation in isiZulu and Sepedi alongside English, addressing a gap in fact-checking tools for South African indigenous languages. The research, led by University of Pretoria Dr Seani Rananga, a PhD student at North West University, comes as AI-generated content becomes harder to identify. Dr Rananga noted that South Africa is one of the most linguistically diverse countries, yet most AI detection systems are developed primarily for English, leaving indigenous language speakers at a disadvantage. Her study demonstrates that multilingual AI can identify misleading information across the three languages while highlighting the importance of improving machine translation for low-resource African languages. The study provides a framework adaptable to combat misinformation during elections, public emergencies, and other events. The Covid-19 pandemic was used as a test case, showing how quickly false claims can spread. Rananga’s research found that improving machine translation is key to making AI effective in African languages, which are often underrepresented in global datasets. Despite challenges, her model successfully identified misleading content across all three languages, offering a framework that could be scaled nationally. She said the solution lies in building trustworthy AI systems rooted in local languages and contexts, providing a foundation for more inclusive and reliable AI technologies for South African languages.