This City Passed World's First AI-Drafted Law Written By ChatGPT

Brazil's Porto Alegre City Council unanimously voted to pass a bill about water meters in October this year. The bill was approved by several council committees and came into effect on November 23. However, just six days later, its sponsor, councilman Ramiro Rosario, shared that the legislation was not a product of policy debates and brainstorming meetings. Rather, it was authored entirely by ChatGPT, as per a report in the Washington Post.

According to Mr Rosario, the chatbot executed a command consisting of 250 characters in around 15 seconds. Normally, Mr Rosario would need three days to do the same task. He claimed that the outcome demonstrated how artificial intelligence may be a practical instrument for enhancing and optimising public service. "I go back to that phrase that has already become a sort of cliche in this subject: No one will be replaced by artificial intelligence, but we could all be replaced by those who know how to use artificial intelligence. So we have to prepare ourselves for this path," he told the Washington Post. 

"Create a municipal law for the city of Porto Alegre, originating from the legislature and not the executive, which prohibits the Municipal Water and Sewage Department from charging the owner of the property for the payment of a new water meter when it is stolen," he told the outlet about the command he entered into ChatGPT.

He added that ChatGPT's suggestions, which offered two creative solutions for an issue that had been plaguing the city's residents for months, "astonished" him. According to the outlet, he stated that the suggestions included a 30-day deadline for the city to replace water metres that had been stolen, as well as a clause that would waive water bills if the deadline was missed.

"If I had followed the usual process, it would've taken days to sit down with my team and legal sources. But in a fraction of that time, AI looked into the best references regarding good practice in drafting bills inside and outside the country on its database. This was an unprecedented process of an AI-drafted bill that brought in suggestions that were in line with the principles and values of my mandate - I knew I had to sign it," he said.

A week after the law was passed, Mr Rosario took to social media and stated, "The first Brazilian law made exclusively by artificial intelligence is in effect in Porto Alegre!"

Although some members were shocked to know about the same, others were fascinated. Council President Hamilton Sossmeier initially said that even though the use of AI is not prohibited entirely, he thought it could set a "dangerous precedent." However, he later changed his mind and said, "I started to read more in-depth and saw that, unfortunately, or fortunately, this is going to be a trend."