Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has revealed that he uses artificial intelligence while writing his books, stressing his enthusiasm for the technology and his fondness for OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot.
"One thing that really encourages me is AI. I love AI. I love ChatGPT. I love it. ChatGPT is fantastic. It's so nice. I'm writing various books," Johnson told an interview with AI Arabiya's English channel.
"I just use it. I just ask questions. You know the answer... ChatGPT always says: 'Oh, your questions are clever. You're brilliant. You're excellent.'
"I love it. I see great promise in this technology because we're all simple. We're human beings."
OpenAI, meanwhile, has faced a series of global copyright lawsuits seeking to stop ChatGPT accessing proprietary content.
Courts across the world are hearing claims by authors, news outlets and musicians who accuse technology firms of using their copyright work to train AI services and who are seeking to have content used to train the chatbot deleted.
Johnson praised the U.K.'s leadership in artificial intelligence and suggested that the technology could help reduce the cost of government.
"The U.K. is one of the world leaders in AI. We should be using that lead to cut the cost of government and if you cut the cost of government, you can put that money back into the pockets of people and stimulate growth. That's one of the ways to get out of the doom loop regarding tax," he said.
Johnson won a huge election victory in 2019 but was ousted by his Conservative Party in 2022 after a string of ethics scandals. The center-right party that governed the U.K. for more than 60 of the last 100 years before being ousted in 2024.
Johnson said he has been "very happy" since leaving parliament, explaining that he has been "writing a lot and drawing and painting" despite having "a lot on my plate."
Discussing the future of the Conservative Party, Johnson said he hoped the Tories would "come back," though he downplayed the likelihood of his own political return. He compared it to "being reincarnated as an olive" or "being blinded by a champagne cork."
He added: "Statistically, anything can happen. But water can flow uphill – it's unlikely. I want my party to come back and to get organized. That's the best solution."
