Brazilian City Enacts an Ordinance That Was Secretly Written By ChatGPT

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: City lawmakers in Brazil have enacted what appears to be the nation's first legislation written entirely by artificial intelligence -- even if they didn't know it at the time. The experimental ordinance was passed in October in the southern city of Porto Alegre and city councilman Ramiro Rosario revealed this week that it was written by a chatbot, sparking objections and raising questions about the role of artificial intelligence in public policy. Rosario told The Associated Press that he asked OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT to craft a proposal to prevent the city from charging taxpayers to replace water consumption meters if they are stolen. He then presented it to his 35 peers on the council without making a single change or even letting them know about its unprecedented origin.

'If I had revealed it before, the proposal certainly wouldn't even have been taken to a vote,' Rosario told the AP by phone on Thursday. The 36-member council approved it unanimously and the ordinance went into effect on Nov. 23. '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. Keeping the proposal's origin secret was intentional. Rosario told the AP his objective was not just to resolve a local issue, but also to spark a debate. He said he entered a 49-word prompt into ChatGPT and it returned the full draft proposal within seconds, including justifications.

'I am convinced that... humanity will experience a new technological revolution,' he said. 'All the tools we have developed as a civilization can be used for evil and good. That's why we have to show how it can be used for good.' And the council president [Hamilton Sossmeier], who initially decried the method, already appears to have been swayed. 'I changed my mind,' Sossmeier said. 'I started to read more in depth and saw that, unfortunately or fortunately, this is going to be a trend.'

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