Mail on Sunday reports Burnham aide used ChatGPT on Welsh Labour speech; No10 says PM wrote it

Mixed · 2The Mail on Sunday reported that an unnamed Downing Street speechwriter was seen using ChatGPT to help prepare a keynote address for Prime Minister Andy Burnham. 1 2 Centre · 1According to the paper, the aide was spotted on a train from London Euston to Holyhead on Friday, working on the address to Welsh Labour members in Llandudno that Burnham delivered on Saturday. 1 Mixed · 2The aide reportedly used the chatbot to make the words more "emotive", including a section criticising Margaret Thatcher's legacy, and an eyewitness said it suggested a passage on "working men's clubs, choirs and other social infrastructure" lost as Britain moved away from its industrial base. 2 1

Mixed · 2GB News, citing the Mail on Sunday, added that the aide was also seen drinking prosecco while writing about the cost-of-living crisis on the way to the conference; the Times of India says the aide was seen drafting references to the cost-of-living crisis. 2 1 Mixed · 2In the speech, Burnham said Thatcher's premiership in the 1980s "shattered the way of life for communities up and down Britain", with "mines closed, factories closed, steelworks silenced", and he referred to working men's clubs, sports teams, choirs and trade unions. 2 1 Right · 1Reform UK chairman and Ashfield MP Lee Anderson told the Mail on Sunday that Burnham's government has no plan on the cost-of-living crisis and called the PM "an artificial prime minister"; he also said "AI Andy's man-of-the-people act has been exposed as a sham". 2

Right · 1GB News also quotes Anderson as saying "It must be thirsty work writing speeches for Burnham", and Reform UK's Welsh leader Helen Jenner as saying Labour is "part of the political establishment that has allowed Wales to be deindustrialised, impoverished and invaded". 2 Right · 1A Downing Street spokesman said: "The PM writes most of his own speeches and this one was no exception." 2 Mixed · 2The Evening Standard and Daily Express quote Downing Street as adding that an aide "sought feedback on a speech draft that had already been written"; the Standard says it is understood the ChatGPT suggestions were not ultimately used. 3 4

Mixed · 2The Evening Standard and Daily Express say the Mail on Sunday published a photograph of the aide, and the chatbot's reply was quoted as "I prefer the second (passage). It moves from the miners to their families to the wider community"; the Express adds that its piece, which asks whether politicians should use AI for speeches, invites readers to vote in a poll. 3 4 Right · 1In the same speech Burnham said he was "in lockstep" with Welsh Labour leader Ken Skates and urged the party to "take stock" after losing power in Cardiff Bay; Labour fell to a distant third behind Reform UK in May's Senedd elections, and Plaid Cymru won. 2 Centre · 1The Times of India says the report comes as Burnham faces Labour opposition to welfare reforms for young people, which he is due to put to Labour MPs on Tuesday, and ahead of a Brussels summit on Friday. 1