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RICK MACLEAN: This wasn't written by AI

It should have been obvious. Somehow, it wasn’t. To him. It was pretty obvious to anyone listening with more than half an ear to what he was saying.

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It was supposed to be a half-hour speech on … something. It didn’t take long to become hard to tell what, exactly. AI, apparently. Artificial intelligence. Oh, the irony.

“Here’s a more natural, flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points.”

Ummm. Then there was this.

“Here’s a more developed and flowing version of the section.”

Finally, he started to realize what he was reading. It was difficult to miss on the third go.

“This section is roughly…” he began, before realizing what he was doing.

He was reading what are called “prompts” in the AI world. Think of them as questions or instructions you give the – disturbingly – intelligent computer program you want to do some, or all, of your work for you.

In this case, the politician using a shortcut to write a speech to be delivered in the legislature in N.B. was MLA Bill Oliver.

Politicians on P.E.I., and everywhere, might want to take........

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