Coping with Population Decline: A Japanese City Turns to ChatGPT for Governance

ChatGPT has been used to create student essays, write wedding vows, and create stirring sermons for pastors and rabbis in the five months since its introduction.

A Japanese city is now using the AI chatbot for yet another purpose: aiding in the management of the government.

This Monday, Yokosuka City, in the Kanagawa prefecture in central Japan, declared that it would start utilizing ChatGPT to assist with administrative duties. According to a press release posted on the local government’s website, the chatbot could be used by all staff to “summarize sentences, check spelling errors, and create ideas.”

The national population issue was a factor that the municipal authorities took into account while introducing the use of ChatGPT, a representative for the municipality told CNN.

Japanese leaders have recently warned that “time is running out to procreate” and that Japan is “on the verge of not being able to maintain social functions” as a result of the country’s aging population’s rapid decline.

Yokosuka is no different. According to the government website, the city’s population of 376,171 is predicted to continue declining due to natural causes that have been made worse by the departure of significant manufacturers and a lack of tourists.

In order to improve efficiency and create a better workflow within government processes in light of these population issues, the city resorted to ChatGPT, according to the spokeswoman.

Because ChatGPT will handle routine administrative activities, “staff can focus on work that can only be done by people, pushing forward an approach that brings happiness for our citizens,” according to the news release.

No confidential or personal information will be entered into ChatGPT, it stated, adding that the government expects the tool to be “used widely among our staff.”

However, not all governments have been as receptive to ChatGPT.

Widespread worries over data privacy prompted Italian officials to temporarily prohibit the chatbot last month while they looked into how its parent business handled data.

Due to concerns about employee usage of third-party software and compliance, some major corporations, like JPMorgan Chase, have tightened restrictions on employees’ use of ChatGPT.

The rush by competing tech firms to create their own AI tools has also brought attention to the ways AI might produce offensive, hurtful, and racist content.

The news announcement stated that Yokosuka government officials have high expectations for the roll-out, so at least they are focused on the positive.

A single sentence at the bottom of the document stated: “This release was drafted by ChatGPT and proofread by our staff.”