Unbeknownst to the members of the Italian parliament, a senator delivered a speech composed entirely of artificial intelligence (AI) before the Italian parliament.
According to a local news report, Italian Senator Marco Lombardo pulled the stunt at a parliamentary meeting on May 31 to spark a “serious debate” among his colleagues about the risks and benefits of AI use.
According to reports, Lombardo’s speech was generated by OpenAI’s GPT-4 chatbot.
In the same interview with local media, he disclosed that he trained the chatbot using the draft law of the Italian-Swiss agreement on cross-border workers, the subject of the meeting, as well as other recent developments on the issue.
“It seemed important to me that the Italian parliament also open its eyes to a phenomenon that is now unavoidable.“
Carlo Calenda, leader of the Italian political party Azione, of which Lombardo is a member, tweeted that the speech was “flawless.”
However, he did not know whether to describe this as “progress” or “regression.”
Lombardo told local reporters he wanted to demonstrate that AI could also “threaten” politicians’ jobs.
“Not even politics can think of exempting itself from a comparison with algorithms. You need to know how to use it consciously.”
On May 18, Italian officials allocated $33 million to bolster digital skills development for workers at risk of termination due to automation and artificial intelligence in various professional sectors.
In March, Italy banned the use of ChatGPT in the country following a data breach within the application.
After requesting more transparency from OpenAI, the application was allowed to reenter the country again on April 29th, roughly a month later.
However, Italy’s ban prompted other global governments to look closely at the technology and consider implementing regulations.
Several governments, including Romania, have already begun implementing AI for policy recommendations.
Regulators in the European Union are drafting the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, which will regulate the public use of generative AI tools and go into effect within two to three years.
Recently, the EU’s chief technologist stated that regulators should issue a voluntary code of conduct for AI companies and not waste time enacting laws.