CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A man vying for the Cheyenne mayoral seat who vowed to leave all governing decisions to artificial intelligence conceded the race in Tuesday's Wyoming primary after voters made it clear they wanted human beings — not computer algorithms — to continue making the calls in city politics.
Scripps News first told you about Victor Miller back in June, when his candidacy drew national attention after announcing that an AI chatbot he called “VIC” (which stands for “Virtual Integrated Citizen”) would be the one calling the shots on all governing issues of the city, with Miller only serving as a “humble meat avatar” since the current political system does not allow an AI to be mayor.
Pitching his candidacy as one where the city could be made more efficient given the speed at which AI can perform tasks compared to a human, Miller also believed his customized ChatGPT model would take feedback from constituents more seriously, and argued corruption could be eliminated with AI at the helm of the city.
How would an AI run a city like Cheyenne? Denver7 put VIC to the test, which you can read here.
Earlier this week, however, The Washington Post reported Miller’s dream to have VIC run the city would have encountered some problems as OpenAI, the technology behind ChatGPT, does not allow the program to be used for political campaigning and the company had already shut down his account before he quickly made another one earlier in the summer when he announced his candidacy with the slogan “AI for Mayor: Vote VIC Meat Avatar.”
In conceding Tuesday’s primary to incumbent Cheyenne mayor Patrick Collins, Miller said he was the first person “to put artificial intelligence directly on the ballot, offering voters the novel choice of AI governance” and declared that his campaign marked a “historic moment in politics and technology.”
How historic a moment it will be remains to be seen, but one thing is clear, according to experts in the field: Artificial intelligence is “supercharging” the threat of election disinformation worldwide as bad actors with access to the technology could create fake and convincing materials that could steer, turn away or even keep voters from the polls in the coming months.
Unofficial results from the Wyoming primary showed Miller – who ran as unaffiliated – received only 3% of the votes Tuesday night.
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