In the Senate with the (first) speech written by artificial intelligence, the provocation in the classroom – Corriere.it

The speech I just concluded is not the fruit of my work, but the product of artificial intelligence, for the first time an artificial intelligence algorithm speaks for itself in the Italian Parliament. It was just after 10 in the Palazzo Madama hall and Senator Marco Lombardo di Azione, at the end of his speech on the bill ratifying the Italy-Switzerland agreements on frontier workers, lifted the veil on what he had just said and admitted that entirely processed by artificial intelligence. The provocation is unprecedented in Western parliaments and recalls that of the German artist Boris Eldagsen who, after winning the Sony World Photography Awards (SWPA) photographic award in the creative category, unmasked himself by declaring that the shot had been generated with the intelligence artificial.

The provocation

I hope that this provocation – explains Lombardo – can be useful for reflecting on the type of challenges and risks associated with artificial intelligence. Then a warning to politics to highlight that, like many other fields and sectors, it is not immune to simulations carried out through intelligent computer systems. At stake is a crucial issue such as democracy, observes the senator. In the courtroom, moreover, no one was touched by the suspicion that Lombardo’s intervention could be the result of an algorithm. My speech is indistinguishable from what any human intelligence could elaborate, I myself was surprised – admits the senator of Action – by the progress that artificial intelligence is making. I don’t exclude that some colleague in the future may use an algorithm to prepare a speech.

The algorithm

In constructing his intervention, Lombardo was assisted by the Engineering group, which submitted the elaboration of a document on the basis of a series of indications to Gpt 4. The inputs reported to the algorithm include, for example, the bill on the agreements between Italy and Switzerland relating to frontier workers, the speeches of the Action senators on the subject, in order to identify the party line, the discussion of the provision with interventions by all parliamentary groups. Gpt 4 was also asked to identify the positive sides and shortcomings of the bill. According to artificial intelligence, the bill is good because it establishes a new tax agreement between Italy and Switzerland which, in addition to adapting to the needs of the 21st century, guarantees more fair and correct treatment for all frontier workers involved, the one it contests, on the other hand, the fact that the provision does not regulate teleworking which can offer – says the algorithm – a significant contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the containment of global warming. It should be added, Gtp 4 points out, that teleworking represents a concrete opportunity, promoting greater participation of women in the labor market and a better reconciliation between work and private life. In short, the algorithm seems to have very clear ideas.

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