United States: Mayoral candidate promises to delegate management of his city to a robot

Hibapress

Victor Miller, a candidate for mayor of Cheyenne, the capital of the western state of Wyoming, has promised that once elected, he will delegate the management of the city to a robot operated by artificial intelligence.

A librarian by trade, the politician highlighted to a few supporters the “untapped potential” of artificial intelligence within government.

“AI would be objective. It wouldn’t make mistakes. It would be able to read hundreds of pages quickly and understand them,” he said, assuring that “this would be a good thing for democracy.”

Delivering his speech at a local bookstore to a sparse audience, Miller promised to run the western town of just under 65,000 people exclusively with an AI robot he calls “VIC” (Virtual Integrated Citizen).

Indeed, after an introductory speech, Miller handed over to VIC, consisting of a computer and a tablet connected to the internet, which answered questions from the audience, as a politician would have done.

Artificial intelligence experts, quoted by the Washington Post, believe that this commitment is a first for American campaigns, and marks a new step in the rapid emergence of this technology.

While welcoming the initiative of Victor Miller, a 42-year-old candidate, experts stressed that his candidacy has little chance of winning.

However, the announcement “seems to test the boundaries of local regulation,” said Valerie Wirtschafter, a fellow on AI and democracy at the Brookings Institution.

The move also highlights the ease with which technology has infiltrated politics ahead of the November presidential election, including the spread of fake news, according to the Post.