Candidate 2.0

By Gordon Hopkins Oh boy. I knew this was coming. I just didn't think it was gonna happen so soon.Victor Miller, age 42, of Cheyenne, the capital of the great state of Wyoming, is running for mayor of that city. Politicians running for office are prone to make outrageous promises to get elected but, I gotta tell ya, this may even beat “I promise to cut taxes without cutting services” as the craziest election promise of all.Miller promises to make all his legislative decisions using AI (Artificial Intelligence). The AI in question is called Virtual Integrated Citizen (VIC) and Miller communicates with VIC via Chat GPT. I guess you would consider VIC candidate for vice-mayor? Is that a thing? In the Miller-VIC partnership, Miller makes sure voters know that VIC is the dominant member of the pair by referring to himself as a “humble meat avatar” for VIC. “Humble meat avatar” sounds more like a sandwich from a science fiction-themed deli, but I get where he is coming from. In an interview with USA Today, Miller explained why VIC is the perfect decision-maker, “It dawned on me that I don’t need to educate. This intelligence I’m using here already knows all the laws and acts rationally. It does all the things that I think humans should.” Except breathe and pick up the tab for lunch once in a while. It is tempting to assume the whole thing is a big, elaborate joke, but not everyone is laughing. Chuck Gray, Wyoming’s Secretary of State, wrote a letter to the City Clerk of Cheyenne, urging her to reject Miller and VIC's candidacy. Put simply, Gray doesn't think VIC meets the minimum qualifications. Apparently, Wyoming's archaic code requires a candidate to be an actual person. Gray wrote, “Wyoming law does not permit an artificial intelligence bot to run for any office in the state, including municipal offices.” Gray pointed out, “To be a qualified elector, one must be a real person, at least eighteen years of age, and a citizen of the United States.” Is it actually codified in the law that a candidates must be a “real person”? Is “real person” defined? I don't know. The law probably does say candidates have to be at least eighteen-years-old. I'm pretty sure all states have an age requirement. I'm not sure of VIC's actual age but I'll bet he couldn't get into an R-rated movie. Given the current state of politics, I certainly understand the temptation to hand over control to an unemotional, totally logical, monotone machine. If at least some people didn't feel that way, Al Gore never would have made it in politics. In a world of electronic communication, electronic friends (Facebook) and electronic money (Bitcoin), I suppose electronic politicians were probably inevitable. Still, the ever-increasing involvement of AI in every aspect of our lives, including politics, is a cause for concern because we still don't really understand everything that drives AIs or what AIs will ultimately do. The big questions is this: if we start letting AIs run for office, don't we also have to let them vote? Will there be a robot suffrage movement? Are we prepared for a suffragoid movement?

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