Brazilian city enacts an ordinance secretly written by a surprising new staffer: ChatGPT

By DIANE JEANTET and MAURICIO SAVARESE
Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — City lawmakers in Brazil passed what appears to be the nation’s first legislation written entirely by artificial intelligence — after they were kept in the dark about its unprecedented origin. The experimental ordinance was passed last week in the southern city of Porto Alegre and revealed this week by city councilman Ramiro Rosário. He says he asked OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT to craft a proposal to prevent the city from charging taxpayers to replace stolen water consumption meters, then presented the proposal to his peers without making a single change or even letting them know about its origin. The arrival of ChatGPT on the marketplace just a year ago has sparked a global debate on the impacts of potentially revolutionary AI-powered chatbots.