If elected mayor, Victor Miller, 42, informed voters he would govern Cheyenne, Wyoming, a city of simply shy of 65,000 residents, by way of an AI chatbot modeled on OpenAI’s GPT-4. He named the chatbot, which he constructed himself, VIC, standing for Digital Built-in Citizen; Miller himself pledged to function a “meat avatar” finishing up VIC’s duties.
On Tuesday, 11,036 Laramie County residents solid votes for mayor; Miller and VIC (or VIC and Miller) obtained 327. The winner was second-term incumbent Patrick Collins, who obtained 6,286 votes.
“I’m really heartened by the response I did get from the people who voted for me,” Miller informed Fortune. “I only have a handful of family and friends, so the majority of those people are just real voters who don’t know me.”
In a tweeted assertion late Tuesday evening, Miller conceded his loss. “As the first person to put artificial intelligence directly on the ballot, offering voters the novel choice of AI governance, our campaign has marked a historic moment in politics and technology,” he wrote.
Whereas “we” misplaced the election, he went on, “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.”
Man vs. machine
It was an uphill battle from the beginning for Miller and VIC, and the drama of his candidacy despatched shockwaves by way of the native authorities. Earlier this summer season, the county of Laramie was fast to make clear that, opposite to the denizens of nationwide information shops claiming in any other case, an AI bot was not really on the poll.
“Victor Miller, through countless interviews and statements … has consistently maintained a distinction between himself as a ‘meat avatar’ and separate from the AI-program he chooses to call VIC,” Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee wrote in a July 5 press launch. “To allow VIC to be listed as a candidate would both violate Wyoming law and create voter confusion. VIC is not a registered voter. Therefore, VIC cannot run for office in Wyoming and the name does not appear on Laramie County’s official ballot.”
Initially, VIC’s identify was on the poll somewhat than Miller’s. However that didn’t final lengthy; in June, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Grey despatched a letter to Cheyenne’s county clerk outlining their views on Miller’s candidacy.
“In Wyoming law, it’s the municipal clerk, not the secretary of state, who certifies candidates,” Grey informed Fortune. “Our office is tasked with ensuring uniform application of the election code, which is title 22.” Wyoming’s legislation is evident, he stated. “To run for office, one must be a quote-unquote qualified elector. That necessitates being a real person.”
Grey stated he was first alerted to Miller’s candidacy by way of a grievance that got here by way of his workplace; he didn’t specify who complained, however stated it was not one other mayoral candidate. Grey spoke with Fortune on Wednesday, a day after the election was known as for incumbent Patrick Collins. Miller got here in fourth place. “The AI bot message did not resonate with voters,” Grey stated.
Miller is a libertarian; Grey, in the meantime, is a staunch republican who stated “our laws have to mean something.” Grey known as Miller’s candidacy “unprecedented and very disturbing.” Mayor Collins didn’t return a number of requests for remark. (“There was no need for all that,” Miller informed Fortune of Grey’s investigation. “It kind of showcases the downsides of having humans in positions of state power.”)
An uphill battle
OpenAI, which powered VIC, shut down entry in June, CNN reported; an OpenAI spokesperson stated Miller’s actions violated its phrases of utilization, as ChatGPT will not be meant for political campaigning. On the time, Miller informed Wired that if OpenAI took VIC entry from him, he’d merely transfer to Meta’s open-source AI providing, Llama 3.
However after OpenAI shut VIC down, Miller labored shortly to assemble VIC 2.0 on the identical service, which labored identically. “OpenAI has forced me to become a freedom fighter in the open-source battle,” Miller informed Fortune. “And VIC 2.0 is still functional. Sam Altman has not found me in the dark corridors of OpenAI just yet.”
In his concession word Tuesday, Miller introduced plans to develop a brand new group known as the Rational Governance Alliance, which he stated will construct off his marketing campaign’s major concept: placing AI within the choice room. Ideally, the group will “create a framework where AI can take on the full responsibility of decision-making in public office, with humans serving as the legal and physical intermediaries required by current systems.” In different phrases, future AI candidates gained’t should go it alone the way in which Miller did.
“To all who believe that the era of traditional politicians has reached its limit, I extend an invitation to join us in ushering in a new age of rational governance,” Miller wrote. “The time has come to move beyond the constraints of human bias and self-interest in public office.”
Managing the alliance could be a little bit of a profession change. Miller works for the native library in Cheyenne, each on the services and grounds crew in addition to on the pc crew, serving to patrons with their day-to-day tech woes.
“I’ve always been a tech and computer guy—an early adopter when things were coming out,” he informed Fortune the day after conceding the race.
His first brush with LLMs got here a number of years in the past when he fed his resume to ChatGPT with a command to enhance upon it, which it did. “I thought, okay, this isn’t just a parlor trick anymore,” he stated. “It’s a real thing that can help us in the real world.”
The ‘twilight’ of human authorities
Operating for mayor alongside VIC was a nexus of Miller’s two major pursuits, he stated: turning into extra literate in AI for his personal functions, and demanding the federal government turn into extra responsive (he cited a latest Sisyphean effort to entry public information from the state ombudsman). “I see a lot of people in my life who tech has really left behind, so I always have that in the back of my mind,” Miller stated. “I’m trying not to let that happen to me.”
He stated VIC prioritizes transparency and openness—and bringing prosperity to Cheyenne. Trusting human politicians to have those self same values, Miller stated, is like “believing in the tooth fairy or Santa Claus.” (The 2024 presidential election is the “perfect showcase” of such dysfunctions. “The DNC is a total clown show,” he stated.) Requested about VIC’s politics, he shrugged. “Kind of what you’d expect,” he stated. “It’s a mainstream OpenAI model; the literature on that tends to say it leans a little left coming out of Silicon Valley. Pretty pragmatic and centrist.”
Noting similarities between VIC’s beliefs and Miller’s, Fortune requested why he didn’t merely run himself—somewhat than work as a “meat avatar.” Miller stated he thinks he’s simply as a lot a part of the issue. The human-run political system, as he sees it, is in its twilight, like monarchies and feudalism. On the horizon: the period of AI governance that “will bring prosperity—and hopefully peace.”
In spite of everything, that’s why Miller’s apolitical. “Obama got me, Trump got me, they all got me,” he stated. “AI got me too.” A pause. “I hope they don’t let me down.”
