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Do you know this woman? ChatGPT has no idea who Viola Amherd is or what she does.
Since last year, the whole of Switzerland has known that Swiss President Alain Berset (50) steers an airplane in his free time. In the summer, Berset, as a private pilot, triggered an operation by the French air police. The whole press found out about his hobby and eagerly reported on it.
Only the chat program ChatGPT knows nothing about it. If you ask it about the leisure activities of the current Federal President, it has no ready answer. Nevertheless, the software is currently considered a milestone in artificial intelligence. She can write texts and answer questions, just ask her.
Who is Viola Amherd?
But a look-attempt shows that the program also writes quite a bit of nonsense. Especially if you want to know something about the Swiss government. In a test by the Federal Council, the program would have failed with a bang. Would you like a few examples?
ChatGPT reports about Berset that he was Federal President from 2012 to 2019. This is utter nonsense. The principle of rotation applies in Switzerland. You are President of the Federal Republic of Germany for one year. Berset will be honored this year, having already been Federal President for a year in 2018.
Anyone who asks the program about Vice President Viola Amherd (60) will read the following: “I have no information about who Viola Amherd is or what she does.” The program also has nothing to say about neo-Federal Councilor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (59).
Cassis has already left
After all, ChatGPT knows Guy Parmelin (63). But the program then assigns him two departments. He is responsible for the departments of Economics, Education and Research (EAER) and Environment, Transport and Energy (UVEK). What would Albert Rösti then have to do, the real Federal Councilor for the Environment and UVEK head?
Nothing when it comes to ChatGPT. The program does not know Rösti either. That is why it may transfer its tasks to its SVP party colleague Parmelin. “I can’t find any information on a person named Albert Rösti. Maybe it’s a person who isn’t well known enough to be mentioned on the internet.” Ouch!
ChatGPT is also completely wrong when you ask about Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis (61). The answer says that he is no longer a member of the government. “Was a member of the Federal Council from 2017 to 2021,” it says.
Text generator without intelligence
The examples show that political school lessons are not obsolete. It will probably be a while before artificial intelligence replaces political housework – or at least writes it correctly.
Because ChatGPT is a program that can predict with a very high probability what the next word should be based on statistical relationships. It thus creates linguistically plausible texts. For this purpose, the program was fed with texts from the Internet. Accuracy of content remains a weakness, however.
The program has probably only read a few texts about the Swiss government. To make matters worse, Rösti and Baume-Schneider have only just been chosen and the AI has not yet been trained with the corresponding data. (you)