Questões de Inglês - Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehension para Concurso

City lawmakers in Brazil have enacted what appears to be the nation’s first legislation written entirely by artificial intelligence (AI) — even if they didn’t know it at the time.

The experimental ordinance was passed in October in the southern city of Porto Alegre and city councilman Ramiro Rosário revealed that it was written by a chatbot, sparking objections and raising questions about the role of artificial intelligence in public policy.

Rosário told The Associated Press that he asked OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT to craft a proposal to prevent the city from charging taxpayers to replace water consumption meters if they are stolen. He then presented it to his 35 peers on the council without making a single change or even letting them know about its unprecedented origin. The 36-member council approved it unanimously and the ordinance went into effect on Nov. 23.

The arrival of ChatGPT on the marketplace just a year ago has sparked a global debate on the impacts of potentially revolutionary AI-powered chatbots. While some see it as a promising tool, it has also caused concerns and anxiety about the unintended or undesired impacts of a machine handling tasks currently performed by humans.

Porto Alegre, with a population of 1.3 million, is the second-largest city in Brazil’s south. The city’s council president, Hamilton Sossmeier, found out that Rosário had enlisted ChatGPT to write the proposal when the councilman bragged about the achievement on social media. Sossmeier initially told local media he thought it was a “dangerous precedent.”

The AI large language models that power chatbots like ChatGPT work by repeatedly trying to guess the next word in a sentence and are prone to making up false information, a phenomenon sometimes called hallucination.

All chatbots sometimes introduce false information when summarizing a document, ranging from about 3% of the time for the most advanced GPT model to a rate of about 27% for one of Google’s models, according to recently published research by the tech company Vectara.

In an article published on the website of Harvard Law School’s Center of Legal Profession earlier this year, Andrew Perlman, wrote that ChatGPT “is a machine learning system, it may not have the same level of understanding and judgment as a human lawyer when it comes to interpreting legal principles and precedent. This could lead to problems in situations where a more in-depth legal analysis is required”.

There was no such transparency for Rosário’s proposal in Porto Alegre. Sossmeier said Rosário did not inform fellow council members that ChatGPT had written the proposal.

Rosário told the AP his objective was also to spark a debate. He said he entered a 49-word prompt into ChatGPT and it returned the full draft proposal within seconds, including justifications.

And the council president, who initially decried the method, already appears to have been swayed. “I changed my mind,” Sossmeier said. “I started to read more in depth and saw that, unfortunately or fortunately, this is going to be a trend.”

( (<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/30/brazil-artificial-intelligenceporto-alegre/9f576ecc-8fb2-11ee-95e1-edd75d825df0_story.htm>(adapted))

(1º§) Located in the arid Peruvian coastal plain, some 400 km south of Lima, the geoglyphs of Nasca and the pampas of Jumana cover about 450 km2 . These lines, which were scratched on the surface of the ground between 500 B.C. and A.D. 500, are among archaeology's greatest enigmas because of their quantity, nature, size and continuity. The geoglyphs depict living creatures, stylized plants and imaginary beings, as well as geometric figures several kilometres long. They are believed to have had ritual astronomical functions.

(2º§) Located in the arid Peruvian coastal plain, some 400 km south of Lima, the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana are one of the most impressive-looking archaeological areas in the world and an extraordinary example of the traditional and millenary magical-religious world of the ancient Pre-Hispanic societies which flourished on the Peruvian south coast between the 8th century BC and the 8th century AD. They are located in the desert plains of the basin river of Rio Grande de Nasca, the archaeological site covers an area of approximately 75,358.47 Ha where for nearly 2,000 uninterrupted years, the region's ancient inhabitants drew on the arid ground a great variety of thousands of large scale zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures and lines or sweeps with outstanding geometric precision, transforming the vast land into a highly symbolic, ritual and social cultural landscape that remains until today. They represent a remarkable manifestation of a common religion and social homogeneity that lasted a considerable period of time.

(3º§) They are the most outstanding group of geoglyphs anywhere in the world and are unmatched in its extent, magnitude, quantity, size, diversity and ancient tradition to any similar work in the world. The concentration and juxtaposition of the lines, as well as their cultural continuity, demonstrate that this was an important and long-lasting activity, lasting approximately one thousand years. Intensive study of the geoglyphs and comparison with other manifestations of contemporary art forms suggests that they can be divided chronologically from the Middle and Late Formative (500 BC − 200 AD) to the Regional Development Period (200 − 500 AD), highlighting the Paracas phase (400 - 200 BC) and the Nasca phase (200 BC - 500 AD). There are two categories of glyphs: the first group is representational, depicting in schematic form a variety of natural forms including animals, birds, insects, and other living creatures and flowers, plants, and trees, deformed or fantastic figures and objects of everyday life. There are very few anthropomorphic figures. The second group comprises the lines, which are generally straight lines that criss-cross certain parts of the pampas in all directions. Some are several kilometres in length and form designs of many different geometrical figures - triangles, spirals, rectangles, wavy lines, etc. Others radiate from a central promontory or encircle it. Yet another group consists of so-called 'tracks', which appear to have been laid out to accommodate large numbers of people.

(4º§) Criterion (i): The Nasca Lines and Geoglyphs form a unique and magnificent artistic achievement of the Andean culture that is unrivalled in its extension, dimensions and diversity and long existence anywhere in the prehistoric world.

(5º§) Criterion (iii): The Nasca and Pampas de Jumana Lines and Geoglyphs, through its unique form of land use, are an exceptional testimony of the culture and magical-religious tradition and beliefs of the societies that developed in Pre-Columbian South America between the 8th BC and 8th AD centuries.

(6º§) Criterion (iv): The system of lines and geoglyphs, which has survived intact for more than two millennia, evidences an unusual way of using the land and the natural environment that represent a highly symbolic cultural landscape, using a construction technology that allowed them to design large-scale figures with outstanding geometric precision.

(7º§) The Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana, with their protection area that extends over 75,358.47 Ha, are well defined and include all physical aspects that convey the Outstanding Universal Value of the property, including its surrounding landscape with which they make up an indivisible unit in a harmonious relationship that has survived virtually unaltered over the centuries.

(8º§) The Pleistocene alluvial terrace, currently with occasional water activity (only during the El Niño Southern Oscillation - ENSO) and the low rainfall rates (the lowest in the world), determine desert climate characteristics and extreme aridity that have favoured the preservation of the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana. Likewise, harmful human activity has caused no severe impact on the property, so the geoglyphs and cultural landscape have remained intact for nearly two millennia, from their design in the 8th century BC to nowadays. The cleaning and preservation works performed have not affected the property's integrity and have promoted their conservation.

(9º§) The construction of the South Pan-American Highway, which directly crosses the property, has caused damages in some lines and figures sectors. However, most of the lines and figures are in fair condition.

(10º§) The authenticity of the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana is indisputable. The method of their formation, by removing the overlying weathered gravels to reveal the lighter bedrock, is such that their authenticity is assured. The creation, design, morphology, size and variety of the geoglyphs and lines correspond to the original designs produced during the historic evolution of the region's and have remained unchanged. The ideology, symbolism and sacred and ritual character of the geoglyphs and the landscape are clearly represented, and their significance remains intact even today.

(11º§) The concentration and overlapping of lines and figures provide a clear evidence of long and intense activity in the territory, reflecting the millenary magical-religious tradition of this activity by pre-Hispanic societies and the historic continuity in Nasca's Rio Grande river basin. The property also shows different social process stages. Several historic sources and researches confirm the property's originality and its original landscape surroundings still preserved in pristine condition and unaltered.

(12º§) Even though there have been some impacts caused by natural and human factors, these have been minimal and the geoglyphs maintain their authenticity and express their high symbolic and historic value even today.

(13º§) The National Constitution (Art 36) and Law Nº 28296, General Law for National Cultural Heritage are the main legal protection tools for the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana,

(14º§) The protection area boundaries are established by Resolution Nº 421/INC as an Archaeological Reserve. However, it has been recommended to redefine those boundaries according to the lines and geoglyphs' real distribution in the field and submit a new proposal to the World Heritage Committee.

(15º§) Since 1941 foreign scientists (notably Dr. Maria Reiche) and the Ministry of Culture have carried out archaeological investigation, conservation, permanent protection and maintenance measures.

(16º§) The management and protection of the Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana is the responsibility of the Peruvian Government represented by the Ministry of Culture. Documentation, research, protection and dissemination activities are being performed through the implementation of national and international research projects and civil associations, in the territory of Nasca and Palpa provinces.

(17º§) A management plan "Sistema de Gestión para el Patrimonio Cultural y Natural del territorio de Nasca y Palpa" for the entire area, which is fundamental in the protection of the Lines and Geoglyphs, has been formulated and is being implemented.

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/700/