MO lawmakers' proposed AI rules were written by AI, metadata shows

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"The chairman said no large language model was used. Then "not to my knowledge." The file was born five days earlier with an AI company's name in embedded metadata."

Missouri House members gathered at Lindenwood University Tuesday morning to release a framework demanding radical transparency from AI companies. The document they handed out was hiding an embarrassing detail about itself.

The file's embedded properties, visible to anyone in two clicks, list its author as OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

The politicians proposing rules to regulate artificial intelligence appear to have asked artificial intelligence to weigh in on the matter.

At first, before examining the metadata, the questions came from general suspicion about the boilerplate template, the neatly curated font and symmetrical text patterns that appeared consistent with AI models.

Rep. Mike Costlow, R-Dardenne Prairie, challenged the premise and said AI detection tools aren't always precise.

The content of the document tells towns to get promises from the utility company in writing before breaking ground on hyperscale data centers, to claw back tax breaks if jobs don't show up, and to make companies prove the water systems still work in a drought.

Using AI to write documents is legal. Lots of offices do it. The irony and the repeated denials raise questions about the future of legislating around artificial intelligence in Missouri.

On whether politicians should have to disclose the use of AI in their campaign materials, Rep. Miller said they should be required to label it.

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