Italian senator provokes parliament with AI-generated speech

cointelegraph.com:

A senator in Italy spoke before members of the Italian parliament with, unbeknownst to parliament members, a speech entirely composed by artificial intelligence (AI). 

In the parliamentary meeting on May 31, Italian senator Marco Lombardo pulled the stunt with the intention of sparking a “serious debate” among his colleagues on what’s at stake and in-store from AI usage, according to a local news report.

L’intelligenza artificiale può migliorare la nostra vita quotidiana, ma come possiamo garantire che non crei nuove disuguaglianze e divisioni nella società? Il discorso del Senatore @mlombardo81 è stato scritto dall’IA e nessuno di noi sarebbe stato in grado di distinguerlo da… pic.twitter.com/36phkpWyeb

Lombardo’s speech was reportedly created via OpenAI’s GPT-4 chatbot. In the same interview with local media, he revealed that he trained the chatbot with the draft law of the Italian-Swiss agreement on cross-border workers, which was the topic of the meeting, along with other recent developments on the subject.

Carlo Calenda, the leader of Lombardo’s party Azione, tweeted that the speech was “flawless” though didn’t know whether he could call this development “progress” or “taking a step back.”

Ho letto il testo. Impeccabile. Non mi è ancora chiaro se siamo davanti ad un progresso o ad un regresso. È una cosa su cui riflettere molto anche alla luce dell’appello di ieri degli scienziati americani. Bravo @mlombardo81 a sollevare in modo così concreto la questione. https://t.co/Toasran5Hs

Lombardo told local reporters that he wanted to show politicians that their jobs too could be "threatened" by AI. 

On May 18, Italian officials set aside $33 million to enhance the development of digital skills for workers at risk of