A recent CBC story used an apparent social media blunder by Bay of Quinte MP Ryan Williams to show how people may be sharing false information generated by ChatGPT.
CBC News reports Williams’ June 18 post on social media site X (formerly Twitter) was deleted shortly after.
Screen shot of deleted post on X by Bay of Quinte MP Ryan Williams.
The post shows a list of the Capital Gains tax rates for G7 countries with Canada at the top of the list at 66.7 per cent.
With the ChatGPT logo included in the post, it seems the artificial intelligence chatbot was used, however, the information is false.
The CBC story indicates that number is Canada’s inclusion rate rather than the capital gains tax rate.
Williams posted the information as part of the Conservatives’ criticism of the Liberal government’s plan to increase taxation on capital gains which kicked in on June 25.
The capital gains inclusion rate and tax rate are not the same thing.
The inclusion rate, which is what increased on June 25, rose from one-half to two-thirds for capital gains of over $250,000 per year for Canadians.
The CBC report indicates capital gains tax rates themselves vary depending on income.
In addition, the report notes the rates for other G7 countries are also off in Williams’s post and that many users have found ChatGPT often makes factual mistakes.
The story quotes a professor and security expert concerned that AI could be spreading misinformation.
Williams made another post on Monday talking about the Conservatives’ plan to launch a Tax Reform Task Force that woud review taxation, perhaps referring to his previous post.
In the post he said, “We need our tax system to be so simple – even AI can figure it out.”
https://x.com/Ryan_r_Williams/status/1805656754312597525
