The councilors of a city in Brazil passed, as it seems, the first regulation in the history of that country that was completely written by artificial intelligence, without knowing it.
The experimental ordinance was passed in October in the southern city of Porto Alegre, where city councilor Ramiro Rosario revealed this week that it was written by a “chatbot” and sparked objections and questions about the role of artificial intelligence in official politics.
Rosario said that he asked OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT to draft regulations on how to prevent the city government from charging taxpayers to replace water consumption meters if they are stolen. He then presented it to his 35 colleagues in the City Council without making any changes or even informing them of its unprecedented origin.
“If I had revealed it before, the proposal certainly wouldn’t even have been taken to a vote,” Rosario said. The 36-member council unanimously approved the ordinance, which took effect on November 23rd.
”It would be unfair to the population to run the risk of the project not being approved simply because it was written by artificial intelligence,” he added.
The arrival of “ChatGPT” on the market just a year ago has sparked a global debate about the impact of potentially revolutionary AI-powered “chatbots”. Although some see them as a promising tool, there have been concerns about the unintended and undesired influence of machines handling tasks performed by humans.
Porto Alegre, with a population of 1.3 million, is the second largest city in the south of Brazil. City Council President Hamilton Sossmejer found out that Rosario had enlisted “ChatGPT” to write a draft regulation only on Wednesday when the councilor boasted about his achievement on social media, BHRT writes.
E.Dz.
