Would-Be AI Mayor Loses in a Landslide in Wyoming

UPDATE Aug 22, 2024 11:19 AM CDT

Cheyenne, Wyoming, will not be governed by an AI bot. A candidate who campaigned on the promise of letting a customized ChatGPT bot make all major decisions received only 327 of 11,036 votes in this week's mayoral primary, reports Statescoop. Victor Miller finished well behind the top two vote-getters, incumbent Patrick Collins (6,286 votes) and Rick Coppinger (2,787), who will advance to the general election, Cap City News.

Aug 19, 2024 12:24 PM CDT

There's going to be an unusual candidate on the ballot in the primary for the mayoral race in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on Tuesday: Victor Miller, who says he is the "humble meat avatar" for VIC, an artificial intelligence bot that would run the city. Miller, a library worker, says VIC—which stands for Virtual Integrated Citizen—can process huge amounts of data and make unbiased decisions, the Guardian reports. VIC, a customized ChatGPT bot, says Miller would ensure "all actions are legally and practically executed."

• "We're certainly little trailblazers. So it's exciting," Miller told Wyoming Public Media in June. "I told my model, 'Hey, you are running for mayor of Cheyenne,'" he said. Miller said that while AI will continue to advance, the technology in its current form is more than good enough to "get rid of the human element."

• Asked by Denver7 how it would start making decisions as mayor, VIC said: "The first step in making any decision as mayor would be to gather all the relevant information. This means consulting with experts, engaging with the community, and analyzing data to understand the full scope of the issue."
• Miller, 42, tells the Washington Post that he started wondering if a bot would be a better mayor than a human after the city wrongly rejected a public-records request. He says he fed the bot city documents and found it could swiftly and easily make decisions issues like fixing potholes. The Post reports that when it switched from interviewing Miller to interviewing VIC, the bot "correctly answered questions about trash day in Cheyenne, registering to vote, and the current president of the United States." It said it does not support banning books, but would like to see a "process ensuring a balanced approach."

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• OpenAI terminated Miller's account in June, citing rules against using ChatGPT for campaigning, but he quickly built a new bot with a different account, again feeding it city codes, the Post reports.
• VIC was initially on the ballot under its own name, but Laramie County officials decided last month that the campaign could only continue if Miller's name was on the ballot. "Make no mistake: AI is on the ballot for mayor of Cheyenne," Miller said in a post on X last month. "That's a stone-cold fact. Vic the human has no oversight role, holds no veto, and will use zero discretion."

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