In the upcoming general election in the United Kingdom, an unnatural knowledge member will be cast vote.
Non-AI candidates running for seats in Brighton and Hove, a town on England’s southern coastline, may stand alongside” AI Steve,” which will be represented by Sussex entrepreneur Steve Endacott.
” AI Steve is the AI inc- pilot”, Endacott said in an exam. ” I’m the actual lawmaker going into Parliament, but I’m controlled by my inc- pilot”.
Endacott is the CEO of Neural Voice, a business that develops personalized message assistants in the form of an AI icon for companies. AI Steve, one of the seven figures the firm created to promote its technology, is located behind Neural Voice’s systems.
He claimed that the plan is to use AI to create a legislator who is available to speak with components and who is willing to take their opinions into account.
On its website, where a huge language model may provide answers in voice and text based on a collection of information about his party’s plans, users may request AI Steve issues or express their opinions about Endacott’s plans.
The AI will conduct some internet research before engaging the voter and pressing them to suggest a policy if he does n’t have a policy for a particular issue raised.
In response to a question about its position on Brexit, AI Steve, which is open to the public, stated:” As a democracy, the UK voted to leave, and it’s my responsibility to implement and optimize this decision regardless of my personal views on the matter.”
Do you have any ideas for how Brexit should be handled in the future? it added.
Endacott said he is looking for “validators,” or people he is targeting because he believes they represent the average person, particularly Brighton residents who commute for a long time each day.
We ask them to give us a score of 1 to 10 once a week. And if a policy gets more than 50 %, it gets passed. And that’s the official party policy”, he said, adding,” Every single policy, I will say that my decision is my voters ‘ decision. And I can communicate with my voters via electronic means at any time, every week.
Endacott unsuccessfully entered a local election in 2022 as the Conservative Party. He received less than 500 votes. When information about AI Steve’s launch was leaked online and prompted around 1, 000 calls to the AI proxy in a single night, the unusual nature of his candidacy sparked some discussion on X over the weekend.
Voters ‘ top issues so far, according to those calls, were ( in order of importance ): Concerns about the safety of , Palestinians, trash bins, bicycle lanes, immigration and abortion. Endacott noted that having an AI representative makes it possible for him to respond to thousands of potential voters every day.
” I do n’t have to go knock on their door, get them out of bed when they do n’t want to talk to me”, Endacott said. People can now choose to communicate with AI Steve on their own volition and when they like, according to him, which is” the old form of politics.”
Endacott describes himself as a “centralist” who aligns most closely, but not quite, with the Green Party. His own party, Smarter U. K., was not registered in time for this year’s election.
He claimed he only owns 5 % of Neural River, the platform behind AI Steve, and that he is not using the AI avatar to further his own business interests. His primary motivation, he said, is to push the government to enact changes to cut carbon emissions — whether that means running for office or, “worst case”, becoming a political influencer.  ,
AI Steve would be the first AI legislator to hold a public office if elected, but he is not the first to experiment with using emerging technology in elections. A Cheyenne mayoral candidate reportedly claims to make decisions for him using an AI bot in Wyoming. And two years ago, a political party in Denmark was established on a platform derived from AI.
Endacott said he wants to make it clear that his platform is” not a joke,” but the idea of an AI politician may seem silly to some and unsettling to others. He refutes the idea that AI is re-enlisting human politicians, saying instead that the goal is to “more humans” be in politics.
” ​​It’s not AI taking over the world. You do n’t just vote for someone every four years, you actually control the vote on an ongoing basis, he said, and AI is being used as a technical way to connect to our constituents and reinvent democracy. ” Which is very, very radical in the U. K. Probably even more radical in America”.
