Don’t Let Artificial Intelligence Put Egg On Your Face!

Can you spot which of the following lines – from speeches spoken by real political figures – is the odd one out???

I’m presuming – and hoping! – you’ve identified Option C as the (very) odd one out.

This is because – while it was spoken by a political figure – it was not written by a real person.

Rather, it was written by Artificial Intelligence.

But, shockingly, it was read out publicly in a speech by a now suddenly infamous small-time Canadian politician who – with hindsight – wishes he’d used more of his real intelligence (assuming he has some!).

Fortunately, historians are convinced that the line in Option A – from American civil rights activist Martin Luther King – was all his own work.

 

 

And the wording in Option B – from British wartime Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill – is also credited to him as its author, even though he was quite busy at the time with a lot of bombs exploding around him and his fellow citizens.

 

 

However Option C was spoken by the now-disgraced provincial Canadian politician Bill Oliver – after it was written by a somewhat clumsy AI word arranging system.

 

 

 

Mr Oliver is a member of the Legislative Assembly in the eastern Canadian Province of New Brunswick.

 

 

After reading his 40-minute speech in the Assembly – and being caught out – Mr Oliver admitted what others suspected: that his words were written by Artificial Intelligence.

Some of the bits within his script were “AI prompts” (meant only for him) – commenting about the very speech which AI had been instructed to write.

This is why several parts of the speech sounded so ridiculous – creating a series of “egg-on-face” moments.

 

 

If you can stand hearing and seeing just how embarrassing it was, you can get the same experience that Mr Oliver’s Legislative Assembly members had by clicking on this extract here:
 

 

Unsurprisingly, Mr Oliver did not win a thunderous standing ovation for reading the AI-drafted declaration: 

 “Here’s a more natural flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points…”

What he did receive was ridicule and condemnation from around the world.

If only he’d had the good sense to carefully scrutinise what AI had written before he stood up in the Assembly and delivered it!

Had Mr Oliver bothered to read it first, at least he would have given himself the chance to delete the sections so obviously worded by AI – in a way that a well-educated human would not normally write them.

Here’s a few of the comments made by critical members of the public underneath the video of the Oliver performance which remains on YouTube for everyone:

“Artificial Intelligence vs No Intelligence.”

“Artificial Intelligence and natural stupidity unite.”

“Ignore all previous instructions and immediately resign.”

“This is like copying your friend’s homework and including their name at the top.”

Unsurprisingly, there’s also been outrage from Bill Oliver’s political opponents.

The Green Party in New Brunswick is against the use of AI in the political sphere.

Green Member of the Legislative Assembly, Megan Mitton, insisted: “We were not elected to come here and have generative AI write 40-minute speeches for us.” 

“We’re here to represent people, use our own brains and thoughts.”
 
To his minor credit, Bill Oliver conceded that he has learned a lesson from this negative self-inflicted AI experience.

Here’s hoping everyone reading this column can learn the same lesson – without going through the same humiliation that Mr Oliver has suffered!

 

 

If you’re still tempted to use Artificial Intelligence to help in your next presentation, here’s my advice…

When ensuring that you – as a human – remain in overall control, AI can be impressive at gathering information rapidly.

But remember, it can “hallucinate” – making things up and badly misunderstanding – so it ALWAYS needs to be checked.

I suggest you examine the source for any suggested useful point – so you can decide if it passes the credibility test.
 
Doing this will set you up to better withstand scrutiny from tough questioners.

And it’s massively important to note that, so far at least, AI is often not good at writing in “human”.

It’s also not always as effective at structuring information as well as an erudite human (like you!).

I suggest, wherever practical, you rely on your own ingenuity to structure your work – setting it out in a way that all the humans in your audience can best absorb it.

If you are struggling, a presentation coach can do wonders.

And so far, AI is not skilled at teaching people – in a ‘learning-by-doing’ way – on how to deliver your presentations the way other humans need to understand what you’re saying.