AI chatbot loses bid to become mayor of Wyoming's capital city

By avagrace // 2024-08-29

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An artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot has officially run for mayor in Cheyenne, the capital city of Wyoming and the state's largest. British tabloid The Sun first broke the news, noting that 42-year-old Victor Miller filed paperwork on behalf of the VIC chatbot. The chatbot, whose name stands for "virtual integrated citizen," was developed using technology from OpenAI's ChatGPT. Miller came up with the idea for VIC earlier this year when he submitted a public records request to the local government. While the initial request was turned down, he appealed the decision and managed to receive the records he asked for. "Then I started wondering if AI would make a better mayor than any human. The program that would eventually become VIC was quickly able to sort through and reference hundreds of public records laws and offer suggestions for funding strategies and renovation projects. Miller, a librarian by profession, even set up VIC to be able to directly respond to constituents' questions during a Q&A session. According to Miller, he plans to take care of everything that VIC cannot – such as ribbon-cutting ceremonies and in-person events. Meanwhile, the robot will take care of executive functions. But the promise of technology espoused by Miller and VIC did not propel the chatbot to the mayoralty seat. Only 327 residents cast their vote for VIC, while incumbent Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins received 6,286 votes. Thus, the mayoralty seat remains warm with an actual human in charge. The loss in the local elections, alongside OpenAI blocking his account multiple times, hasn't dissuaded the librarian. "They can't stop me from doing what I'm doing," Miller said. "It doesn't matter what kind of word games they play."

OpenAI blocks Miller, halts VIC's mayoralty bid

The San Francisco-based OpenAI later said it shut down Miller's access to ChatGPT. Using ChatGPT in this manner goes against its policies, the company said. "We've taken action against these uses of our technology for violating our policies against political campaigning," said an OpenAI spokesperson. The company's website states that it prohibits "engaging in political campaigning or lobbying, including generating campaign materials personalized to or targeted at specific demographics." Aside from Miller, OpenAI also took action against another candidate in the United Kingdom who was using its AI models for his campaign for the British Parliament. Steve Endacott, chairman of the Neural Voice AI company, made use of the ChatGPT tool to answer voters' questions and leave their opinions. Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray meanwhile said in a statement that he is "closely" monitoring Miller's bid for mayor through VIC, adding that he wrote a letter to the Cheyenne municipal clerk about the matter. Gray suggested that the chatbot is essentially a fig leaf for a Miller candidacy. "Wyoming law is clear that to run for office, one must be a 'qualified elector' – which necessitates being a real person," the secretary of state said. "Therefore, an AI bot is not a qualified elector." Other experts also put in their two cents about VIC's candidacy for mayor. Jen Golbeck, a professor at the University of Maryland's College of Information Sciences, said AI "should never be used to make automated decisions" and "the decision making should always be left to humans." David Karpf, associate professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University, noted that people behind an AI candidacy such as Miller shouldn't be taken seriously. "ChatGPT is not qualified to run your government. No one is going to vote for an AI chatbot to run a city," he said. Watch this discussion about whether AI is controlling people from thinking critically. This video is from the DITRH channel on Brighteon.com.

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OpenAI blocks Miller, halts VIC's mayoralty bid

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