The city of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture has a few claims to fame: It's home to a major U.S. naval base, it's the birthplace of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and it lends its name to a local variation of Japanese curry.

On Thursday, it staked out a new claim as the first municipality in the country to use ChatGPT in its municipal offices.

Roughly 4,000 employees at Yokosuka’s municipal government office began using the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, which was created by OpenAI late last year, for a one-month trial in efforts to improve operations.