Rafizi vs Najib strongman debate sees AI punches thrown

The debate between Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli and former BN deputy director of strategic communications Eric See-To has spilt over into the realm of artificial intelligence.

See-To, who is a staunch supporter of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, and who uses the pseudonym Lim Sian See to launch scathing attacks on the Madani government, claimed ChatGPT declared him as having the upper hand in the debate.

Sharing the answer on Facebook, See-To (above) said when he asked who won the debate between Lim Sian See and Rafizi, the AI application replied: “Answer: In the recent podcast between Rafizi and Lim, no official winner was declared.”

“However, many viewers sided with Lim, especially when he brought up issues like diesel subsidies and the 1MDB case, which made it difficult for Rafizi to offer clear responses.

“Some viewers felt Rafizi avoided answering direct questions, such as the claim that private users are subsidising industrial users for diesel, which eventually led the moderator to change the topic,” it added.

In response, Rafizi’s press aide Farhan Iqbal also turned to ChatGPT with a question - “Is Najib Razak corrupt and guilty?”.

Taking to X with his findings, he posted: “ChatGPT also says Najib is guilty. Perhaps Lim Sian See should have asked this instead.”

He also included the app’s response, which read:

“Yes, Najib Razak, the former prime minister of Malaysia, was found guilty of corruption. In July 2020, he was convicted on seven charges related to abuse of power, criminal breach of trust, and money laundering concerning the misappropriation of RM42 million from SRC International, a subsidiary of 1MDB. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined RM210 million. His convictions were upheld by the Federal Court of Malaysia in 2022.

“The case was part of the broader 1MDB scandal, in which billions of dollars were misappropriated from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. While Najib has consistently denied any wrongdoing, his legal battles have continued through various appeals and investigations.”

Unreliable chatbots

It should be noted that ChatGPT comes with the warning: “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info”. This is because large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT can appear to be knowledgeable even when they are not.

A study published last week found that LLMs are increasingly unreliable as they are more likely to attempt to answer a difficult question and end up being wrong, rather than to plead ignorance or change the subject.

The study also found that people perform poorly when it comes to spotting bad answers provided by AI chatbots.

See-To and Rafizi locked horns live on the “Yang Bakar Menteri” podcast, which was posted on the minister’s Facebook page.

During the debate, Rafizi said the social media influencer, who worked for BN during Najib’s time in power, did not present a full picture when discussing 1MDB.

He added that the “Lim Sian See” Facebook account, which has 50,000 followers, appeared to be aimed at influencing the perception of Malay voters.

The PKR deputy president particularly referred to See-To’s defence of the 1MDB scandal despite the publicised investigations, court cases, and convictions.

Investigators alleged at least US$4.5 billion (RM18.8 billion) was misappropriated from the sovereign fund.

To this, See-To said he would continue defending Najib, as the former Umno president was allegedly subjected to “great injustice” by being jailed over an SRC International case.

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