Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Wednesday delivered a speech to parliament that incorporated sections written with the assistance of an artificial intelligence tool called ChatGPT. The purpose was to emphasise both the groundbreaking potential and the associated risks of AI technology.
As the parliamentary session drew to a close for the summer, the leader of the Danish government delivered a customary speech.
Midway through her speech to lawmakers, Frederiksen abruptly stated, "What I have just read here is not from me, or any other human for that matter." She clarified that the section in question had been composed by ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence tool.
"Even if it didn't always hit the nail on the head, both in terms of the details of the government's work programme and punctuation... it is both fascinating and terrifying what it is capable of," the leader said.
Late last year, ChatGPT gained significant attention for its remarkable ability to generate essays, poems, and conversations with minimal prompts. This success triggered a frenzied rush of investment, with billions of dollars pouring into the field. However, both critics and insiders have sounded the alarm.
Among the concerns raised are the potential for chatbots to spread disinformation across the web, the risk of biased algorithms producing racist content, and the potential devastation that AI-powered automation could bring to entire industries.
The ramifications of this subject will be discussed in a high-level meeting on trade between the United States and the European Union scheduled for this Wednesday in Lulea, Sweden.
A group of industry leaders and experts, including Sam Altman, whose company OpenAI developed the ChatGPT bot, issued a warning on Tuesday regarding the potential "extinction" threat posed by this technology.
The portion of Frederiksen's speech that was composed by ChatGPT contained sentences similar to the following: "It has been an honour and a challenge to lead a broad government in the last parliamentary year."
"We have worked hard to co-operate across parties and ensure a strong and sustainable future for Denmark," and "We have taken steps to combat climate change and ensure a fairer and more inclusive society where all citizens have equal opportunities," the AI tool wrote.
"Although we have faced challenges and resistance along the way, I am proud of what we have achieved together in the last parliamentary year."
There has been no comment from Frederiksen's regular speechwriters regarding the quality of the writing thus far.
