Revealed: How the UK tech secretary uses ChatGPT for policy advice

Peter Kyle, the UK's secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, has said he uses ChatGPT to understand difficult concepts The UK's technology secretary, Peter Kyle, has asked ChatGPT for advice on why the adoption of artificial intelligence is so slow in the UK business community – and which podcasts he should appear on. This week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the UK government should be making far more use of AI in an effort to increase efficiency. "No person's substantive time should be spent on a task where digital or AI can do it better, quicker and to the same high quality and standard," he said. Now, New Scientist has obtained records of Kyle's ChatGPT use under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, in what is believed to be a world-first test of whether chatbot interactions are subject to such laws. These records show that Kyle asked ChatGPT to explain why the UK's small and medium business (SMB) community has been so slow to adopt AI.