A new AI tool, ChatGPT, is gaining traction in the political world, with politicians using it to answer questions, generate speeches, and even help draft laws. However, experts have raised concerns over the potential for the bot to generate misleading or fabricated data.
On a recent exam, attended by the Prime Minister of Japan, his adversary used ChatGPT to fabricate the questions and generate answers that he claimed were more sincere than his rival. The Prime Minister retorted with the claim that his own answers were “more specific.” This example reflects the power of ChatGPT to influence the political arena.
French trade union boss Sophie Binet has noted that such participation was once done solely by humans, with her dry assessment of a recent speech by President Emmanuel Macron of France as one that “could have been done by ChatGPT.”
In the United States, Congresswoman Nancy Mace was one of the first to demonstrate its uses, delivering a five-minute speech to the Senate based on AI generated by ChatGPT. This was shortly followed by Massachusetts senator Barry Finegold’s team using ChatGPT to draft a bill. A study from Leiden University in the Netherlands found that the bot produced original ideas within their legal text.
However, experts are warning against a rapid uptake of the tool due to concerns about bias and the ethics surrounding OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. It’s believed by many that if the bot is used inappropriately, it could have a hazardous effect on politics, with one example showing potential bias in ChatGPT when it refused to write a poem praising Donald Trump but happily churned out couplets in favor of his successor Joe Biden. This is one of the reasons behind the proposed development of “TruthGPT,” an AI tool in development by Elon Musk which will be stripped of any liberal bias.
ChatGPT is also a powerful tool in redundant political tasks, such as generating emails asking for donations. Additionally, a tool designed by the founder of Belgian satirical website Nordpresse, Vincent Flibustier, uses ChatGPT to answer as if it was an “angry trade unionist”.
It is clear that ChatGPT is a powerful tool with implications for the political world, but with great power also comes great responsibility. Politicians and analysts should bear in mind the potential for fabrication and bias that comes with this tool before utilizing it in their endeavors.
