Japan is using OpenAI’s ChatGPT to try and make its often opaque and complex government regulations easier to understand.
(Bloomberg) — Japan is using OpenAI’s ChatGPT to try and make its often opaque and complex government regulations easier to understand.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is now trying out the chatbot to simplify official documents and make them more accessible, Minister Tetsuro Nomura said. It’s the first time that a branch of Japan’s central government has publicly said it is testing out OpenAI’s artificial intelligence.
“We are not doing anything big with this,” Nomura told reporters during a regular news conference Tuesday, adding that the chatbot would handle only publicly available information. “There is always the danger of classified information leaking.”
The ministry plans to use the chatbot to update online manuals on how to fill out applications for subsidies and other public support, the Asahi newspaper reported earlier. Thousands of pages in regulatory changes are made every year, and the ministry now outsources the labor-intensive task of updating its homepage, the paper said.
ChatGPT debuted in Japan’s parliamentary debates when an opposition lawmaker used the chatbot to draft questions to the prime minister.
Read more: Japan PM Quizzed by ChatGPT as Lawmaker Enlists Bot’s Help
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.