Nancy Mace has proven a point: ChatGPT now has a new job for the government: speechwriter.
The US Committee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing about artificial intelligence (AI) today and the speech came along with a twist in a bid to share a stark warning about the future of AI.
Nancy Mace, the chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology and Government Innovation, delivered an opening speech as per protocol in her hearing was titled: “Advances in AI: Are we ready for the Tech Revolution?” You can watch her 5-minute long speech here:
Who is Nancy Mace?
Republican Nancy Mace is a congresswoman serving the state of South Carolina, US. She has an accolade for being the first woman to graduate from Citadel, a prestigious military college in Charleston, South Carolina. On the whole, Nancy Mace’s speech was a pretty stock-standard piece cautioning the impacts of AI on society, as well as ensuring that AI is “developed and used in a way that is ethical, transparent, and beneficial to society.” Not much in there that’s controversial.
That’s pretty standard for a hearing, right? Nope. In M. Night Shyamalan fashion, Mace reveals at the end:
Now, before I yield back, I’d like to note that everything I’ve said in this opening statement—every single word up until this sentence—was not my words, but generated in its entirety by ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence tool.
Nancy Mace
Ta-da! The entire speech was written by ChatGPT. In other words, ChatGPT was hired to be a speechwriter. But why did Mace do this? In her words:
For those who think that the advances in AI won’t impact them, think again.
Authored by ChatGPT
After the hearing, Mace punched a cheeky tweet:
Mace has a point, and her latest move urges us to think about whether or not an AI author as a substitute for human writers is a welcome move. In a press release shared by the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Nancy Mace’s move signifies the need to bring more discussion around embracing these new technologies and what impact this will have on society.
Last month a university in Nashville, Tennessee copped intense backlash for using ChatGPT to write a condolences email about a mass shooting, causing a community uproar about the absence of genuineness, authenticity and human emotion for utilising the tool.
Here in Australia, books co-authored by ChatGPT are now available for purchase online at the largest book retailers, raising questions about how we might rethink the way we start consuming ‘truth’ and ‘content’ as the lines between what’s real and what’s not become further blurred.
