Dancing the macarena with an AI bot

I've just had another run-in with Artificial Intelligence over one of the many controversies embroiling the Labor Government and its hapless Ministers during the past week, before it reluctantly admitted it was wrong.

Selecting just one individual from the bunch recently exposed in the media spotlight is a bit like the old game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey:

. The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Treasurer Jim Chalmers have reportedly been at loggerheads over the botched credit card surcharge removal and the Australian Taxation Office's refusal to accept card payments, with Albo and Jim arm-wrestling for honours in having the change deferred;

. Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has tried unsuccessfully to justify the $20-plus million taxpayers had to fork out for the 'Pre-Cop Flop' meetings in Fiji and Tuvalu after the riveting speakers including former Labor PM Julia Gillard, ex- New Zealand PM Jacinta Ardern and Teal Independent Zali Steggall saw him nodding off, with Steggall facing a blackout as the diesel generators couldn't compete with all the hot air generated.

. Minister for Communications and Sport Anika Wells had another Freudian slip at the National Press Club - while introducing the government's proposed new Digital Duty of Care legislation, she said "we are controlling" before correcting herself, "we are not controlling free speech; we are not conducting covert surveillance". But Albo had already belled the cat on that one at the recent UN conference in New York, saying its next targets would be "misinformation, disinformation, and the increasing political polarisation driving people away from the political centre toward the far left and far right" - then denying he had made that link the very next day!

. Anika Wells, again over the continuing travel rorts controversy, after she charged taxpayers $4,000 for a trip to Adelaide and an overnight stay which she claimed as "official business" for a meeting with State Labor Minister Chris Picton, when she also just happened to attend a friend's birthday party and there was no entry in Picton's diary to back her claim.

I could go on, but my latest tangle with Google's AI bot involved another travel scandal involving Anne Aly and her triple portfolios - Minister for Small Business, International Development and Multicultural Affairs.

With more small businesses under the pump and facing possible liquidation in the wake of Federal Budget changes compounded by the latest credit card surcharge bungle initially backed by Chalmers and Albo, it came as a surprise to many that Ms Aly was actually the responsible Minister, along with her other seemingly conflicting duties.

She faced a grilling from the Opposition over her $150,000 taxpayer-funded overseas travel bill, earning her the tag "The Macarena Minister".

That's when I asked the AI bot for a link to a video clip of her doing the dance moves while on an overseas jaunt, and it insisted half a dozen times that no such footage existed - the clip I had seen on News24 was an AI generated satirical spoof.

I knew that if such satire was shown, it would always be identified, probably because there would be legal ramifications if it was portrayed as real footage.

So I persisted: "They showed an actual clip of her doing the dance move so yes it does exist." AI: "There is no footage of Anne Aly doing the Macarena.