BRUSSELS : Nearly a quarter of written parliamentary questions examined by Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad were classified as entirely generated by artificial intelligence, according to an analysis published Wednesday.
The newspaper used an AI-detection tool to analyze hundreds of questions submitted between 2022 and 2026, which classified 22.5% as entirely AI-generated and another 20.4% as partially AI-generated.
The growing use of AI has sparked debate among Belgian lawmakers about its impact on parliamentary work, including the increasing volume of questions submitted to ministers.
Peter De Roover, speaker of the Belgian parliament and a member of the New Flemish Alliance, warned that AI was making it easier to flood ministers with questions.
“It is becoming very easy to submit a whole series of questions that are not really meaningful and serve to score points in media lists that track who is very active in asking questions,” De Roover told broadcaster VRT.
He said lawmakers’ right to question the government was fundamental, but warned that feeding newspaper articles into a chatbot could generate numerous questions with little effort or understanding.
“If you do not pay attention, you will soon get the situation where an MP asks a question via a chatbot, to which the minister answers with a chatbot, to which the MP responds again with a chatbot,” he told Het Nieuwsblad.
Arthur Orlians, a lawmaker from the Anders party, said he uses AI for translations and to work through legal texts, but not to draft parliamentary questions.
“You must never let AI replace you. There is nothing more harmful than a member of parliament who does not understand what he is intervening about and reads from a piece of paper,” Orlians said.
Eva Demesmaeker of the New Flemish Alliance said she uses AI in the final stages of preparing questions to identify ambiguities and correct language or spelling errors.
She also acknowledged the growing workload, saying some questions submitted to committees had gone unanswered for months because ministers were receiving so many requests.
