What began as a bold political declaration from Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro quickly morphed into a debate about technology, after an ally said an AI chatbot was to blame for a line that briefly cast the right-wing politician as Brazil’s rightful “president-elect.”
In the original letter, Mr Bolsonaro described himself as Brazil’s rightful “president-elect”. His ally insisted that the mistake did not alter Mr Bolsonaro’s view that the election was illegitimate.
Mr Bolsonaro jolted Brazil’s political class yesterday when he made the claim and alleged, without evidence, that Sunday’s runoff election — which he lost to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by more than 4 million votes — had been tainted by fraud.
About an hour after posting the document, the senator removed it from his social media accounts and uploaded a revised version, swapping out “president-elect” for “leader of Brazil.”
The sudden edit set off a flurry of speculation across Brazilian media and among political watchers. One of Mr Bolsonaro’s closest allies soon offered an explanation that, he argued, had less to do with messaging and more to do with software: OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Paulo Figueiredo — a right-wing influencer and podcast host who acts as an unofficial spokesperson for the Bolsonaro family in the United States and who first circulated the letter to journalists — said the text had been through multiple iterations, with input from several people.
Flavio Bolsonaro lost to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s runoff election
Mr Figueiredo said Mr Bolsonaro’s younger brother, former Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, turned to ChatGPT to help put the finishing touches on the final version.
According to Mr Figueiredo, the chatbot output included an outdated version of Brazil’s coat of arms and pulled from an earlier draft of the letter.
“When generating the document, AI ended up including an earlier version of the text, in which Flavio presented himself as the true ‘president-elect’,” Mr Figueiredo wrote on X, adding the errors were only spotted after he had already sent the letter to members of the press.
He said Mr Bolsonaro ultimately settled on the term “leader” for legal and moral reasons.
Mr Figueiredo added that those involved found the slip-up “hilarious” and portrayed the adjustments as “nothing major.”
OpenAI and Mr Bolsonaro’s press officers did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
“In the end, the essential is expressed precisely by Flavio: these elections were illegitimate, he does not recognise the result, and he will continue fighting to restore democracy in Brazil,” Mr Figueiredo said.
The senator arrived in Miami yesterday after leaving Brazil, where he refused to comply with a Supreme Court order to turn in his passports as part of a probe into alleged money laundering, in which he denies wrongdoing.
Mr Bolsonaro’s decision to declare himself the country’s rightful “leader” has failed to garner support from key figures in his political camp, leaving him increasingly isolated.
Mr Lula’s victory has been recognised by Brazil’s federal electoral court, global leaders, international observers, and Mr Bolsonaro’s own party.
US President Donald Trump has described Brazil’s presidential election as ‘disgraceful’
Trump calls Brazil election a ‘disgraceful situation’
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has labelled Brazil’s presidential contest “disgraceful”, intensifying his criticism and stopping short of saying whether he accepts Mr Lula’s win.
“I think the election was a disgrace in Brazil,” Mr Trump told reporters when asked if he accepted Mr Lula’s victory, as the US leader headed on a midterm election campaign trip.
“I don’t want to comment on it right now, but I thought the election was a very great embarrassment to the people of Brazil,” Mr Trump added.
“I watched the election. I let it be. I was asked not to take sides by the president, the current president. I didn’t take sides, but when I watched what went down in Brazil, it was a disgrace,” he said.
Mr Trump also cited the Brazilian stock market’s decline after Mr Lula’s victory, saying, “I thought it was a very disgraceful situation for Brazil.”
The comments marked a shift in tone from as recently as yesterday, when Mr Trump described Brazil’s election as “very strange” but said he “won’t get involved” in Mr Bolsonaro’s claim to the presidency.
