Artificial intelligence makes mistakes all the time: adding extra fingers to generated images of humans or hallucinating data just to please its user. But sometimes, mistakes rest entirely on the humans using it, a Canadian lawmaker has found out.
In a now viral video, Bill Oliver, a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of New Brunswick, is seen addressing the legislature. But while reading his speech, one line raised eyebrows.
“Public confidence in the office of an advocate matters,” Oliver read. It seemed like any other political address up to that point, until he continued: “Here’s a more natural, flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points.”
The sudden digression was clearly an AI-generated instruction that was inadvertentl left in. The politician did not seem to notice, continuing to read aloud without hesitating or stopping.
Oliver’s team declined to comment when reached by Fast Company.
Whether the other MLAs noticed the error or not, users on social media surely did. On Reddit, a video clip of the speech quickly gained traction on the New Brunswick subreddit, with users criticizing the lawmaker’s blatant use of AI.
Many of the initial responses pointed to discontent over tax dollars being used toward paying the salaries of lawmakers who then end up using AI for key parts of their jobs, as one user pointed out: “And this dude gets paid with tax dollars? This guy needed to resign yesterday.”
Another added: “Amateur hour. This is what we pay these people for?”
How many people missed the prompt?
Reddit users who claim to be familiar with how the legislature operates highlighted how the error may have slipped through the cracks at several stages.
“The worst part of this is that MLA statements are all vetted by their caucus staff, which means MULTIPLE people saw this and MULTIPLE people didn’t point it out,” a user commented.
Others highlighted discrepancies in the apparent lack of consequences for using AI in politics, particularly when compared with areas like education.
“If there are no consequences for this, then we hold our high schoolers to a higher standard than our elected officials,” a user wrote in response to the video.
Another added: “If he was a lawyer, he’d be sanctioned. Why should it be any different for an elected representative? Demand more.”
For instance, a U.S. appeals court sanctioned two lawyers in early June after they submitted a brief containing AI hallucinations. A week later, four more lawyers from both sides of a case were also disciplined after being caught using AI.
The comparisons continued, with one user saying: “[I’ll] do you one better. If he was a high schooler, he’d fail the test.”
