A close ally of Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro on Thursday said AI chatbot ChatGPT was responsible for language in a letter briefly posted on social media by the right-wing lawmaker describing himself as Brazil’s rightful “president-elect,” while insisting the mistake did not alter Bolsonaro’s view that the election was illegitimate.
Bolsonaro stunned Brazil’s political establishment on Wednesday by making the claim and alleging without evidence that Sunday’s runoff election, which he lost to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by more than 4 million votes, had been marred by fraud.
Roughly an hour after sharing the document, the senator deleted it from his accounts and published a revised version, replacing the term “president-elect” with “leader of Brazil.”
READ | ‘True Leader’ Flavio Bolsonaro Vows To “Lead” Brazil Opposition From US Right-wing influencer and podcast host Paulo Figueiredo, who serves as an unofficial spokesperson for the Bolsonaro family in the United States and first shared the letter with journalists, said the document had gone through several drafts and incorporated contributions from multiple people. Figueiredo said that Bolsonaro’s younger brother, former Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, sought ChatGPT’s help to finalise the letter. The chatbot inserted an outdated version of Brazil’s coat of arms and used a previous draft of the letter, according to Figueiredo.
