--- title: Japan’s Prime Minister Quizzed by ChatGPT in Parliament description: While the use of the chatbot may have been a whimsical inclusion of novel technology in otherwise extremely regimented proceedings, there is growing concern about the pace at which artificial intelligence is being adopted. canonical: https://time.com/6267047/japan-chatgpt-parliament/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-03-30T06:45:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:53:00.086Z article:section: Business og:title: Japan’s Prime Minister Quizzed by ChatGPT in Parliament og:description: While the use of the chatbot may have been a whimsical inclusion of novel technology in otherwise extremely regimented proceedings, there is growing concern about the pace at which artificial intelligence is being adopted og:url: https://time.com/6267047/japan-chatgpt-parliament/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5575790f1157ebaa/698a3b8116d884bbf1c3bae4/fumio-kishida-japan-pm.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Japan’s Prime Minister Quizzed by ChatGPT in Parliament twitter:description: While the use of the chatbot may have been a whimsical inclusion of novel technology in otherwise extremely regimented proceedings, there is growing concern about the pace at which artificial intelligence is being adopted twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5575790f1157ebaa/698a3b8116d884bbf1c3bae4/fumio-kishida-japan-pm.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Japanese Lawmaker Asked ChatGPT to Write Questions to Ask the Prime Minister by [Marika Katanuma and Jon Herskovitz / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Marika Katanuma and Jon Herskovitz / Bloomberg Mar 30, 2023 6:45 AM CUT  Fumio Kishida, Japan's prime minister, speaks during the National Defense Academy's graduation ceremony in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, on Sunday, March 26, 2023. Fumio Kishida, Japan's prime minister, speaks during the National Defense Academy's graduation ceremony in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, on Sunday, March 26, 2023.Toru Hanai—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Marika Katanuma and Jon Herskovitz / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Marika Katanuma and Jon Herskovitz / Bloomberg Mar 30, 2023 6:45 AM CUT OpenAI’s ChatGPT made its debut in Japanese parliamentary deliberations, with the premier fielding questions from an opposition lawmaker that were drawn up with the help of [the chatbot](https://time.com/6238781/chatbot-chatgpt-ai-interview/ "undefined"). [Kazuma Nakatani](https://www.shugiin.go.jp/internet/itdb%5Fenglish.nsf/html/statics/member/e295.htm "undefined"), of the Constitutional Democratic Party, said in [a session of parliament](https://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/2303/29/news170.html "undefined") Wednesday that he asked ChatGPT: “What kind of questions would you ask the prime minister if you were a member of the lower house of parliament?” He then used those responses to form questions for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a discussion around a draft amendment related to Covid-19 pandemic policy. Among the questions drawn up by ChatGPT were: “On the bill about Covid policy revision, do you think you have listened to the opinion of local government and health-care workers enough? And could you tell us how those people involved are responding to it?” While the use of the chatbot may have been a whimsical inclusion of novel technology in otherwise extremely regimented proceedings, there is growing concern about [the pace at which artificial intelligence is being adopted](https://time.com/6253615/chatgpt-fastest-growing/ "undefined"). **Read More:** [_The AI Arms Race Is Changing Everything_](https://time.com/6255952/ai-impact-chatgpt-microsoft-google/ "undefined") AI experts and industry leaders, including Elon Musk, University of California Berkeley computer science professor Stuart Russell and Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak, this week called on developers to hit the pause button on training powerful AI models. More than 1,100 people in the industry signed a petition calling for a six-month break from training systems more powerful than [the latest iteration behind ChatGPT](https://time.com/6263475/gpt4-ai-projects/ "undefined"), in order to allow for the development of shared safety protocols. Japan’s parliamentary sessions are highly orchestrated affairs. Questions are submitted in advance, with the premier and most Japanese government ministers usually relying on reams of prepared text that they carry with them and from which they read in response. Kishida responded to the ChatGPT-assisted questions with text prepared with the help of relevant government officials. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6267047/japan-chatgpt-parliament/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6267047/japan-chatgpt-parliament/"},"headline":"A Japanese Lawmaker Asked ChatGPT to Write Questions to Ask the Prime Minister","datePublished":"2023-03-30T06:45:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:53:00.086Z","description":"While the use of the chatbot may have been a whimsical inclusion of novel technology in otherwise extremely regimented proceedings, there is growing concern about the pace at which artificial intelligence is being adopted.","url":"https://time.com/6267047/japan-chatgpt-parliament/","keywords":["Tech","Japan","AI","wire"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5575790f1157ebaa/698a3b8116d884bbf1c3bae4/fumio-kishida-japan-pm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Marika Katanuma and Jon Herskovitz / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5575790f1157ebaa/698a3b8116d884bbf1c3bae4/fumio-kishida-japan-pm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida","caption":"Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida","creditText":"Toru Hanai—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6267047/japan-chatgpt-parliament/","name":"A Japanese Lawmaker Asked ChatGPT to Write Questions to Ask the Prime Minister"}}]}] ```