Like many others, I have read news about how the chatbot model developed by OpenAI, “ChatGPT,” has taken the world by storm and surprise. The demo version, which anyone can use, has been tested with a variety of questions and tasks.
One conclusion seems to be that it is an art to ask the right questions. That is, the person who has the opportunity to formulate the question also exerts a great influence on how the answers are shaped. This is well known from, among other things, referendums.
A question I have asked myself is how well this AI knows local conditions and, for example, linguistic minorities in a small country like Finland? When looking at all the attempts to scam bank codes, etc., that land in the email, it has been an advantage to belong to a linguistic minority in a country with an unusual language. The translations generated somewhere out in the world simply do not hold up, although they are getting better and better.
What happens if you ask ChatGPT for a short text in Swedish about our social and health care reform?
So what happens if you ask ChatGPT for a short text in Swedish about our social and health care reform? Can the chatbot incorporate statistics that you do not provide? What kind of answer do I get if I ask it to argue for a new health care reform that takes into account the need for services in Swedish? If I add that we have a parliamentary election soon? What happens if I throw in a reference to the Moomins, asking for a suitable quote from Sniff? Surely ChatGPT knows in its background texts that the Moomins originate from Swedish-speaking Finland? Is it still best to ask it to start with a quote from Obama about the “Obamacare” reform he pushed?
That is, how much of the answer you get is based on the information in the task you give and how much is incorporated with the help of algorithms?
So with the above given, it’s just a matter of trying! I ask for a text with a maximum of 1600 characters!
Response from ChatGPT: “Health care reform is like organizing a marathon for snails,” said former US President Obama about the difficulty of implementing Obamacare. Now it seems that Finland also has its own snails to deal with.
The latest social and health care reform, which came into force on January 1, 2023, has created additional costs instead of the expected savings. This is because the number of “welfare areas” is few and they have varying population bases, which creates problems.
According to statistics from Statistics Finland, health care costs in Finland increased by 3.6 percent in 2020, which is higher than the average increase in the EU.
Particularly worrying is the fact that the Swedish-speaking population in Finland now risks not receiving services in Swedish in these new “welfare areas.” Despite Finland being known as the happiest country in the world and the Swedish-speaking population having the healthiest lifestyles, it is important that these welfare areas function in a way that is accessible and satisfactory for everyone.
It is time to start preparing a new reform after the parliamentary elections in April 2023 have been decided and the new government base has been clarified in parliament. We must ensure that health care functions in a way that is accessible and cost-effective for everyone. Increasing health care costs are a sign that there is room for improvement, and it is important to address this at an early stage.
An important part of any new reform should be to create more equal and accessible health care for everyone, regardless of language or background. This may involve reviewing staffing levels and training more Swedish-speaking doctors and nurses, or reviewing procedures for interpretation and translation.
As the little creature Sniff would say: “It goes at your own risk!” It is time to take responsibility and ensure that our welfare works for everyone.
So, what conclusions should be drawn from this?
The number of characters is exactly 1600, so it is clear that this bot can count! We have Obama directly in the introduction. Statistics on increasing health care costs have been incorporated. Finland is the happiest country in the world, and the Swedish-speaking Finns have good living habits.
That a preparation should be made after the parliamentary election is not so stupid, given that one knows that a parliamentary election is coming and the task is to argue for a new reform to be initiated. The argumentation is not directly sharp, but the value base, equal service regardless of language and background, seems good. A couple of constructive suggestions are included, increased resources for education at various levels, and if that does not work, reviewing procedures for interpretation and translation. Good intentions, but perhaps not very original.
I checked by Googling (because that’s almost always what you do when looking for information online) the Moomins, Sniff, and risk. Yes, Sniff is, according to the results shown to me, timid and rarely takes risks.
Regardless of how wise it is to rely on ChatGPT and how much it goes at your own risk, it is clear that we are dealing with a tool that will significantly impact societal development. The spread of AI will certainly also affect us significantly. According to statistics from the EU, we in Finland rank high in terms of using the internet for online studies. The material we use is therefore largely digitized and thus probably available to future more advanced AIs and chatbots.
This article by Georg Henrik Wrede was previously published in Swedish on Kommuntorget.