NDP rejects claim from Scott Moe that it used AI to create health-care plan

The leader of Saskatchewan’s Opposition says Premier Scott Moe’s accusation that the NDP used AI prompts in its recently released health care policy is “obviously false.”

NDP leader Carla Beck’s comments were in response to a recent social media post from Moe. In the post shared Wednesday, the premier accused the NDP of forgetting to remove AI prompts from its health care plan, which was 32 pages when it was initially shared by the party.

“It’s no wonder no one takes the NDP seriously,” Moe said in the post shared on X.

Moe claimed the NDP forgot to remove the prompts it fed into AI for two of paragraphs in the report’s key recommendations.

“Cost every health platform commitment against this return-on-investment logic. So, the platform’s affordability story survives scrutiny from the press and the opposition alike,” one part of the text read.

The other excerpt Moe referred to said: “Publish a plain-language explainer of this note’s numbers alongside the platform costing. The thirteen-to-one figure belongs in a stump speech.”

The document outlines how an NDP provincial government would seek to improve Saskatchewan’s health-care system by strengthening primary care. It would do so, in part, by helping residents find doctors or nurse practitioners in their respective communities, rather than being forced to seek treatment in major hubs.

The version of the report that was originally shared by the NDP was removed following Moe’s post. It was replaced by a 28-page document that no longer contained the excerpts the premier said were written by artificial intelligence.

Meara Conway, the NDP’s shadow health minister, clarified, saying that she wrote the plan alongside paid researchers and experts.

“What you saw there was a recommendation from our researcher and myself to the team. That was not an AI prompt,” Conway said Thursday, adding that an earlier version of the file was uploaded and that was what prompted the confusion.

“You can kind of tell by how it was written this was not AI. It’s wild to me to see that that was the premier’s response to this incredibly detailed and bold proposal for fixing health care.”

The leader of the provincial NDP spoke with reporters alongside Conway. Beck said the plan involved researchers and consultations with health-care workers, not AI.

“(Moe is) going to focus on something that’s obviously false but also so completely misses the point. I guess it isn’t any wonder how we ended up where we’ve ended up in health care in this province,” she said.

“Keep picking stupid battles, the premier can continue to do that if he likes. We’re going to continue to focus on the people of this province.”

In an email statement for Global News Wednesday, Thomas Ockley, the Opposition caucus director of research and policy, said that more than 1,000 Saskatchewanians have been consulted so far on the NDP’s plan.