Japanese opposition lawmaker poses questions to PM Kishida with help of ChatGPT

OpenAI’s ChatGPT made its debut in Japanese parliamentary deliberations, with the premier fielding questions from an opposi-tion lawmaker that were drawn up with the help of the chatbot.

Kazuma Nakatani, of the Constitutional Democratic Party, said in a session of parliament on Wednesday that he asked ChatGPT: “What kind of questions would you ask the prime minister if you were a member of the lower house of parliament?” He then used those responses to form questions for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a discussion around a draft amendment related to COVID-19 pandemic policy.

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Among the questions drawn up by ChatGPT were: “On the bill about COVID-19 policy revision, do you think you have listened to the opinion of local government and health-care workers enough? And could you tell us how those people involved are responding to it?”

While the use of the chatbot may have been new for a parliamentary session, the discussions are highly regimented. Questions are submitted in advance, with the premier and most Japanese government ministers usually relying on reams of prepared text that they carry with them and from which they read in response.

Kishida responded to the ChatGPT-assisted questions with text prepared with the help of relevant government officials.

Read more: ‘AI not a replacement for reporters’: AP’s Julie Pace on ChatGPT job security worries