Canadian politician reads out apparent AI model response during parliamentary speech
A New Brunswick politician's slip-up during a floor speech, where he read an LLM prompt instruction out loud, has gone viral and drawn mainstream media attention.
Anyone familiar with the internet has likely encountered telltale signs of AI-generated text, often left behind by users who forget to remove them. This week, a Canadian legislator took that phenomenon to an embarrassing new level by reading an apparent LLM prompt instruction into the record during a floor speech.
Bill Oliver, a Progressive Conservative Party member of the legislative assembly of New Brunswick, noted in his speech last month: “One of the dangers associated with creating advocacy offices is that citizens often develop expectations that exceed the powers actually granted to those offices.” He then continued by saying aloud: “Here’s a more natural, flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points.” The phrasing bears all the hallmarks of a large language model offering an alternative style option in response to a prompt.
The odd reading initially went largely unnoticed, but video of the remarks began circulating on social media platforms like Reddit and Threads earlier this week. In Canada, the incident has now garnered mainstream attention from outlets such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and The Toronto Star. The latter described it as a sign of “a growing divide in our society: between the elites, who are only too happy to delegate their duties to the Borg; and the masses, who find this objectionable.”
