Meet VIC, an AI bot running for mayor in Cheyenne, Wyoming

What role should AI have in politics? Victor Miller, a Cheyenne, Wyoming, mayoral candidate, believes AI should be the exclusive decision-maker.

According to the city of Cheyenne , Miller is running for mayor. If you ask him, though, you will get a different answer.

“Make no mistake: AI is on the ballot for mayor of Cheyenne,” Miller wrote in an article posted to his X account . “That’s a stone-cold fact.”

VIC, or Virtual Integrated Citizen, is an AI bot created by Miller through GPT4 for the purpose of serving as the mayor of Cheyenne, according to The Washington Post .

Miller believes that human error accounts for many of the mistakes made in politics. Delegating all decisions to AI would, in his opinion, produce the best outcome in every situation.

“When it’s concerning Cheyenne ordinances, I think that’s its bread and butter. I think (VIC) can do it,” Miller said , referring to a document of more than 400 pages which was referred to in a city council meeting.

VIC can analyze things like that in seconds, while it might take a human several days or weeks to fully understand that much information.

Miller’s plan is not without opposition from other mayoral candidates. One candidate, Rick Coppinger, has urged the state to ban bots from running for office.

“If people believe AI will run their city better than human intervention then we have issues,” Coppinger told The Washington Post in a recent interview.

OpenAI, the company which owns and operates GPT4 and several other AI tools, strictly opposes the use of its services for political decision-making.

According to The Washington Post, the company has shut VIC down on a number of occasions, banning Miller’s OpenAI account each time. Within a matter of hours, Miller is able to create another account, upload relevant information on the city of Cheyenne and build his bot again.

The ‘meat avatar’ system

Miller refers to his setup as the “meat avatar” system, as AI bots are not eligible to run for office on their own.

“This system places an AI (bot) on the ballot by superimposing it onto an eligible human,” Miller said in an article posted to his X account . “The actual candidate is the AI, and the human is merely the facilitator.”

Miller went on to say that in order for the system to be successful, the meat avatar must not have any veto power over the bot.

If the human intervenes even once, he says, all credibility is lost.

“We simply refuse to live in a world where politicians exist,” Miller said. “We replace them with AI, and we reap the peace and prosperity that follows.”