AI enters politics

Some early applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are being reported. In the UK, Steve Endacott, or "AI Steve" is asking the constituents of Brighton and Hove to submit policy proposals:

Endacott created the AI candidate’s initial platform, for example, and the campaign wants to recruit 5,000 people to be “creators”—these are the folks who will have discussions with the chatbot—to surface potential policies. ...These people, everyday Brighton commuters, will review and rate AI Steve’s policies on a scale of 1 to 10. Source

I think asking people for their preferred policies is a missed opportunity: we should be asked what are our preferred goals. Policies are a means to an end. Very often they don't achieve their stated goals, or do so inefficiently and in conflict with other goals. For most of us, it's not policies that are important; it's how closely society's goals are met. (I've written to AI Steve along these lines.)

A political application of AI in the US looks more promising. Victor Miller, running for mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming, has created a chatbot ("VIC") that would call the shots:

Miller fed VIC the supporting  documents - emails, public records, notices - from past Cheyenne Fity Council meetings... By analyzing these documents, Miller says VIC will learn to make policy recommendations, figure what's important and decide how to vote in council meetings. "It's unlikely that a human can read, say, 400-plus supporting documents between meetings," he says, "But VIC can do that[.] An AI Bot Is (Sort of) Running for Mayor in Wyoming, Vittoria Elliott, wired.com, 12 June 2024

A possible danger of injecting AI into politics is that it could be used to entrench existing inefficient and opaque policymaking systems by making them easier to work with. My hope is that it can help in the articulation, prioritising and costing of society's goals - a necessary condition for implementing the Social Policy Bond concept.