ATLANTA — Some worry artificial intelligence could one day rule humanity.
Robots have not taken over yet, but AI may be helping with a core function of democracy in Georgia’s largest county: writing ordinances and resolutions.
A Fulton County commissioner used an online tool to analyze legislation introduced by a couple of her colleagues and found that four proposals, including two that would change ethics policies and procedures, were likely written by AI.
“The idea that we’re going to have machines write what humans should be doing ethically … it opens a can of worms for me,” said Commissioner Dana Barrett, who did the review.
She said the two commissioners behind the legislation, Marvin Arrington Jr. and Bob Ellis, might be exposing the public to unintended consequences because, she said, in her experience AI tends to go overboard on details.
Capitol Beat ran the legislation through the same online tool, called GPTZero, and got similar results. The tool determined it was 100% likely that a proposed ordinance and two proposed resolutions were generated by AI, and it assigned another proposed resolution a 90% likelihood of AI authorship.
The tool cited qualities such as a lack of creativity, “robotic formality,” impersonal tone and mechanical precision.
The company behind GPTZero does not go into much detail on its website about how it works, except to say that it collects raw data, looks for similarities and draws a line between what it considers to be human- versus AI-generated text.
Ellis said in a statement that he, “like the rest of the world,” used “technology tools” to research his ideas and to refine his thoughts. He said he also asked the county attorney’s office to review his work.
He did not say whether he had outsourced the writing of his proposed ethics resolution to AI. He placed the 32-page document on the agenda for the commission’s meeting this week.
Arrington, who also had his legislation on the agenda, said AI use was widespread.
“Artificial intelligence is already being used throughout government, business, education, law, medicine, and nearly every other profession,” he said in a statement. “Public officials who are not learning how to use this technology responsibly are behind the ball. They need to catch up or get left behind.”
Arrington did not say AI had written his proposals, but, like Ellis, he said he had used technology “tools” and that those tools did not diminish or replace his judgment informed by 30 years as a lawyer and 12 years as a county commissioner.
“Suggesting that responsible AI assistance invalidates legislation or policy is like claiming that someone cheated because they used a computer instead of a typewriter,” he said.
Ellis, a Republican, accused Barrett, a Democrat, of launching a “juvenile” attack.
Arrington, a Democrat, said Barrett was taking “cheap political shots.” Arrington also found hypocrisy in Barrett having used an AI tool to sniff out AI writing.
Barrett said she used AI but only to confirm what she already suspected after reading the legislation and noting unusual language and formatting. She said she used AI with her own policy proposals, but she said she only used it for analysis and for editing of her original writing.
Barrett said she sympathized with her fellow commissioners’ desire to amend ethics policies and procedures but could not support their legislation as written.
She characterized her colleagues’ new proposals as “very extreme, especially where there is potentially not as much critical thinking or thoughtful lawmaking as there should be because of the use of AI.”
One of Arrington’s three proposals — about food insecurity and community gardens — did not pass in a vote Wednesday evening. He then held his other two items for a future meeting. One was about abolishing the county ethics board and the other was about limiting public comment at commission meetings.
Ellis also decided to hold his own ethics resolution.
Barrett and Arrington will leave office in a few months. In the meantime, Arrington said he planned to introduce a comprehensive county policy for AI use.
He said he developed it with help from AI.