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Loquacity and visible emotion: ChatGPT as a policy advisor

Author

Listed:
  • Claudia Biancotti

    (Bank of Italy)

  • Carolina Camassa

    (Bank of Italy)

Abstract

ChatGPT, a software seeking to simulate human conversational abilities, is attracting increasing attention. It is sometimes portrayed as a groundbreaking productivity aid, including for creative work. In this paper, we run an experiment to assess its potential in complex writing tasks. We ask the software to compose a policy brief for the Board of the Bank of Italy. We find that ChatGPT can accelerate workflows by providing well-structured content suggestions, and by producing extensive, linguistically correct text in a matter of seconds. It does, however, require a significant amount of expert supervision, which partially offsets productivity gains. If the app is used naively, output can be incorrect, superficial, or irrelevant. Superficiality is an especially problematic limitation in the context of policy advice intended for high-level audiences.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudia Biancotti & Carolina Camassa, 2023. "Loquacity and visible emotion: ChatGPT as a policy advisor," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 814, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_814_23
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    File URL: https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/qef/2023-0814/QEF_814_23.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kosinski, Michal, 2023. "Theory of Mind May Have Spontaneously Emerged in Large Language Models," Research Papers 4086, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    2. Alejandro Lopez-Lira & Yuehua Tang, 2023. "Can ChatGPT Forecast Stock Price Movements? Return Predictability and Large Language Models," Papers 2304.07619, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2024.
    3. Shijie Wu & Ozan Irsoy & Steven Lu & Vadim Dabravolski & Mark Dredze & Sebastian Gehrmann & Prabhanjan Kambadur & David Rosenberg & Gideon Mann, 2023. "BloombergGPT: A Large Language Model for Finance," Papers 2303.17564, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2023.
    4. Andrea L. Eisfeldt & Gregor Schubert & Miao Ben Zhang, 2023. "Generative AI and Firm Values," NBER Working Papers 31222, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Herbert Dawid & Philipp Harting & Hankui Wang & Zhongli Wang & Jiachen Yi, 2025. "Agentic Workflows for Economic Research: Design and Implementation," Papers 2504.09736, arXiv.org.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Large language models; generative artificial intelligence; ChatGPT;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

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