Dangerous precedent or trend? In Brazil, lawmakers passed a document written by ChatGPT

December 3, 17:35 Share:

ChatGPT generated a document for the authorities – it was accepted (Photo: ramirezom/depositphotos)

The city council of the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre passed a resolution that was written entirely by the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.

Porto Alegre city councilor Ramiro Rosario asked the OpenAI ChatGPT chatbot to develop a proposal to ban charging taxpayers for replacing water meters in cases where they have been stolen. He entered the 49-word prompt into ChatGPT and within seconds received a full draft proposal, including its rationale.

Without adding any changes, Rosario presented the proposal to his colleagues on the City Council. The proposal was supported unanimously and has already entered into force. After the vote, Rosario said that he used ChatGPT and hid it on purpose: he sought not only to solve the problem, but also to spark a discussion about artificial intelligence.

In comments to The Associated Press, Rosario noted that his colleagues might have rejected the proposal if they knew that the city councilman did not come up with it himself.

“If I had disclosed this earlier, this proposal certainly would not have been put to a vote.. It would be unfair to the public to risk a project not being approved just because it was written by artificial intelligence,” he said.

City Council President Hamilton Sossmeier said he only learned of ChatGPT's involvement after Rosario admitted it on social media.. At first he condemned this approach and called a precedent “ dangerous,” but eventually changed his mind.

“All the tools we have developed as a civilization can be used for evil and good. So we must show how it can be used for good. … I started to dive into the topic and saw that, unfortunately or fortunately, this would become a trend,” Sossmeyer said.

Rosario from Porto Alegre was not the first legislator in the world to use ChatGPT to his advantage. However, other attempts were less successful. For example, Democratic US Senator Barry Finegold turned to ChatGPT to write legislation aimed at regulating artificial intelligence models. It was filed in early 2023 but has yet to be voted on.

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