A law secretly written by ChatGPT has been smuggled onto the statute book in Brazil after a lawmaker used the AI app to write a new bill.
Porto Alegre City councillor Ramiro Rosario took to the app to create a two-clause law that protected citizens from higher water bills.
The law went through the entire drafting, amending and debating process without anyone having a clue that it had been written by an app, according to local media.
It was finally voted into law and then approved by city mayor Sebastiao Melo on 23rd November.
It was only after the bill became law that councillor Rosario admitted he had not written it himself.
Astonished city council president Hamilton Sossmeier said: “I consider it strange. This is the first time it has happened, and no law indicates that I cannot approve it.
“Today, there is nothing that prohibits it. But, in my opinion, it is a dangerous, complicated precedent.
“Other, more complex laws could come that generate other types of impact.
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“For now, my personal concerns remain. A warning light has come on.”
The bill exempts citizens from having to pay the Municipal Department of Water and Sewage for a new water meter if theirs is stolen.
Councillor Rosario said all he had to do was key in a command for the basic legal outline of the bill’s intention and let the app do the rest.
Astonishingly ChatGPT spat out the first draft in just seconds and Rosario sent it to the council unaltered.
The city council simply reviewed the text, made spelling corrections, and adapted it to their legal language, according to reports.
It was only after final approval that Rosario revealed the law had drawn up by ChatGPT.
He explained: “Our strategy was not to mention to anyone that it had made by artificial intelligence, precisely to let it proceed normally and carry out this experiment.
“We chose a bill that was simple and avoided controversial topics.
“Artificial intelligence didn’t just deliver the text I proposed, it went further. It proposed deadlines and included a clause which we hadn’t thought of.”
Rosario believes that AI tools will simplify and revolutionise politicians’ work but might also make many of them redundant.
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Story By: John Adejumo, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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