After calling himself "president-elect" in an open letter, Flávio Bolsonaro, son of Jair Bolsonaro, walked it back; an ally said it was caused by ChatGPT finalizing the draft
Flávio Bolsonaro, who lost Brazil's presidential election, called himself "president-elect" in an open letter and then walked the wording back. His ally Paulo Figueiredo said the erroneous wording stemmed from his brother Eduardo Bolsonaro using ChatGPT to finalize the draft, when the AI incorporated an earlier version. Figueiredo stressed that the error was not politically motivated, and that Flávio Bolsonaro still considers the election illegitimate and does not recognize the result. OpenAI and Flávio Bolsonaro's press office have not yet responded.
Body · AI translation
An ally of Flávio Bolsonaro (Jair Bolsonaro's son), who lost the Brazilian presidential election, said on the 29th that the use of the phrase "president-elect" in Flávio Bolsonaro's open letter should be blamed on ChatGPT, the chatbot owned by the U.S.-based OpenAI research center, but that this error did not change his view that the election was "illegitimate." In the second round of the Brazilian presidential election held on the 25th, incumbent President Lula defeated former President Jair Bolsonaro's son, Liberal Party candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, and successfully won re-election. Flávio Bolsonaro arrived with his family in Miami, Florida, on the 28th. He issued an open letter calling himself "president-elect," then changed his wording to call himself "Brazil's leader," and announced that he would lead the Brazilian opposition from abroad. According to Reuters, one of Flávio Bolsonaro's closest allies, Brazilian right-wing internet personality Paulo Figueiredo, was the first to release the letter to the media. Figueiredo said the wording error was not politically motivated but technical. The letter went through multiple drafts and incorporated opinions from many people, and in the end Flávio Bolsonaro's younger brother, former Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, used ChatGPT to help finalize it. "When generating the document, the artificial intelligence (AI) ultimately incorporated an earlier version, in which Flávio Bolsonaro called himself the 'true president-elect,'" Figueiredo wrote on the social platform X, saying he discovered the error only after sending the letter to the media. According to him, Flávio Bolsonaro ultimately switched to the word "leader" out of legal and moral considerations. Figueiredo stressed that no matter how the wording was revised, Flávio Bolsonaro's core position remained unchanged: he considers the election illegitimate and does not recognize its result. According to Reuters, OpenAI and Flávio Bolsonaro's press office have not yet responded. According to multiple Brazilian media reports, sources said the U.S. side expressed displeasure over the wording of the letter, though it could not be immediately confirmed whether the U.S. view directly prompted Flávio Bolsonaro to change the wording.