Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture has recently announced that they will be turning to ChatGPT – an AI chatbot, in a bid to make administrative tasks more efficient. With the city’s population declining, this marks the first time a Japanese city has taken on such a bold decision to use the AI tool. It is also the first city to give ChatGPT a chance in the West.
ChatGPT, developed by US firm OpenAI, first made headlines for its ability to create wedding vows, compose sermons for pastors and rabbis, as well as complete various projects and assignments. During the trial period, Yokosuka’s estimated 4,000 municipal employees will have access to the AI chatbot’s services like summarising sentences, checking spelling errors and creating ideas for documents, marketing and communications.
Takayuki Samukawa, a public relations representative for Yokosuka’s digital management department said, “With the population decreasing, the number of employees is limited. However, there are many administrative challenges. So we aim to use useful ICT (Information Communication Technology) tools, like ChatGPT, to free up human resources for things that can only be done in a person-to-person format.”
Though this move is applauded, it was not been welcomed everywhere. Earlier this month, Italy took the decision to temporarily block ChatGPT over data privacy concerns, becoming the first western country to take an action of this magnitude against the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.
OpenAI, the US company behind ChatGPT, uses the data it collects and stores to train the algorithms underlying the platform. However, Italy’s Data Protection Authority, concluded that OpenAI had no legal basis to do so, thus leading to the temporary block. Despite this, Yokosuka, is undeterred and is pushing forward with its trial.
It is yet to be seen if ChatGPT can live up to the hype and bridge the gap between Yokosuka’s decreasing population and the number of municipal employees. In the meantime, Yokosuka, as well as its 4,000 municipal employees, can only hope for the best.
