ChatGPT, released last November by US firm OpenAI, has gained traction recently in the political arena due to its ability to score points swiftly. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and French union leader Sophie Binet have both faced off the AI writing tool, while Nancy Mace and Barry Finegold of the US have used it to write speeches and draft bills. ChatGPT has been praised for introducing original concepts to the political dialogue but experts have urged caution on the untested and potentially biased tool.
OpenAI is a San Francisco-based technology company focused on creating artificial intelligence to benefit humanity. They are best known for the development of ChatGPT, an AI-driven, text-generating neural network. The tool is often used to answer questions quickly and accurately with automated messaging, which has prompted its use in the political sphere. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was asked questions on healthcare reform during an opposition discussion from ChatGPT, and the MP generated answers more “sincere” than those of the Prime Minister. French union leader Sophie Binet used ChatGPT to jokingly describe Emmanuel Macron’s latest speech.
The team legislation bill in Massachusetts was reported to have used ChatGPT to introduce new concepts in the bill, while Anne Meuwese from Leiden University in the Netherlands replicated a similar experiment and found that the ChatGPT inserted new ideas to a legal text. This is worrying to certain experts, as they are concerned regarding the unaccountability of biased AI, or the potential it has to do harm.
In response, Elon Musk has pledged to develop a TruthGPT AI, one that would allegedly be stripped of any perceived bias. The left too has its own ‘Marxist AI’, created by Vincent Flibustier, who runs the Belgian satirical website Nordpresse. He said his AI is instructed to answer as an ‘angry unionist’.
With this kind of dynamism, the political merits of ChatGPT remain to be seen. Meanwhile, it is important for lawmakers to realize that although automated solutions might be attractive, testing and transparency are of utmost importance when it comes to serving the public. The potential for the AI to act unethically, fabricate facts and become cloudy in its motives remains a concern to the experts. Thus, it is crucial for politicians to pay attention to these warnings and think carefully before relying too heavily on ChatGPT.
