The electorate is not ready for an AI bot making political decisions but a US librarian says a ‘revolution’ is sprouting.
ADVERTISEMENTAn artificial intelligence (AI) bot will not run a local government in the United States after it lost the race by a long way, but the incident highlights how the technology continues to seep into politics.
Victor Miller, a 42-year-old librarian with a passion for AI, ran as a mayoral candidate for Cheyenne, Wyoming. But he planned to govern the city with the help of an AI bot called VIC, short for "Virtual Integrated Citizen".
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Miller told a small crowd "AI wouldn't make mistakes" as it would read hundreds of pages of municipal details quickly and understand them.
"It would be good for democracy," he argued.
However, voters were not convinced and Miller received just 327 votes out of the 11,036 ballots cast.
In a statement posted on X late on Tuesday, Miller conceded the race.
"While we didn't win the election, we've achieved something remarkable: we've introduced the world to a new paradigm of governance and sparked crucial discussions about the role of AI in public administration," he wrote.
But the possibility of an AI-run city has sounded alarm bells for officials and tech companies.
'Safety concerns'
ChatGPT maker OpenAI shut down Miller’s original bot, stating that it went against its policies of using its products for campaigning. Miller then created a new bot to continue his campaign.
The Wyoming Secretary of State expressed "significant concerns" about VIC appearing on the ballot and argued that only a real person could be on the ballot.
But local officials disagreed, allowing "Victor Miller" to run and not just VIC.
Fears that AI could develop faster than efforts to regulate it are troubling governments as the technology encroaches on the political sphere, especially in instances of election misinformation.
But Miller argued in his statement that AI governments can promise decisions “based on data and logic rather than political expediency, where the interests of all citizens are equally considered".
He also announced the formation of an organisation called Rational Governance Alliance that aims to put AI "directly in charge of governance decisions".
It would use "Rationally Bound Delegates" (RBDs) or "public servants" who would defer their decision-making to AI systems, “serving as the necessary human interface” in the current legal and social framework.
ADVERTISEMENT"The seeds of a revolution in governance have been planted, and they're already beginning to sprout," Miller wrote.
