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Mette Frederiksen: In the Danish parliament, the head of government caused a surprise

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LISELOTTE SABROE / AFP

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is creating an element of surprise in parliament. The Social Democrat politician gave a speech to MPs in Copenhagen, which was partly written by the chatbot ChatGPT. "What I have just read here does not come from me," nor from "any other human being," Frederiksen said suddenly in the middle of her speech. She wanted to point out the revolutionary aspects and risks of artificial intelligence (AI).

The head of government herself was astonished by the parts of her speech written by the AI tool ChatGPT. "Even if it hasn't always hit the nail on the head, both in the details of the government's work programme and in terms of punctuation, it's fascinating and at the same time frightening what it can do," Frederiksen said.

Within a few seconds, a speech can be written, a university assignment can be solved, or a report can be prepared – and so convincingly that few believe that it is not a human being behind it, but a robot. "Artificial intelligence is no longer the future. It's a reality," Frederiksen said. And it will change our society – on a scale that we simply don't understand yet."

Speechwriters were silent at first

In the parts of the speech written by ChatGPT, there were phrases like: "We have worked hard to work together across party lines and ensure a strong and sustainable future for Denmark." Frederiksen's usual speechwriters initially did not comment on the quality of the sentences written by the chatbot.

ChatGPT is a chat program based on advanced AI technology from the US start-up OpenAI, which has been open to the public since November. In the meantime, larger companies have also developed comparable chatbots. In addition to enthusiasm, the potential also triggers massive fears. One concern is that chatbots could flood the internet with misinformation or that AI-supported automation could destroy entire industries. Among other things, there are calls for politicians to regulate development.

asc/dpa/AFP