An Italian senator surprised his colleagues by reading a speech in parliament composed by a chatbot, later saying he did so to encourage a "serious debate" about the risks and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence.
"How many of us today are able to see the difference between a text that is a product of human intelligence and a stream of thought and one that was produced by an artificial intelligence algorithm?" said Senator Marko Lombardo.
The speech, on the topic of important bilateral agreements with Switzerland, was produced by Microsoft's OPEN AI GPT chatbot, the senator told Reuters.
He said it took his collaborators "several hours" to input the necessary information into the software, which then immediately produced the speech.
Carlo Calenda, the leader of the Action party from Lombardy, announced on Twitter that what the senator said was "impeccable", but added: "I still cannot judge whether what we are witnessing is progress or a step backwards".
Lombardo said he was impressed by recent developments in AI, but called for a better understanding of the technology to strike the right balance between regulation and innovation.
Italy has been in the spotlight in recent months after authorities there temporarily banned ChatGPT and launched an investigation into alleged privacy violations.
On Wednesday, European Commissioner for the Digital Age Margret Vestager said that a voluntary code of conduct for AI would be drawn up in the "next few weeks".
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