- Democratic challenger Jason Palmer won American Samoa’s primary, preventing Biden’s victory.
- The longshot candidate credits the adoption of AI as part of its success.
- Palmer, an entrepreneur, uses AI to text and email voters, and an AI avatar to talk with them.
Jason Palmer, the youngest The Democratic challenger for president in the 2024 election defeated incumbent Joe Biden in American Samoa’s primary election on Super Tuesday — an unexpected win she credits AI with helping to achieve.
Palmer received 51 total votes in the American Samoa primary, compared to Biden’s 40. While Palmer’s surprise victory prevented Biden from sweeping all primaries and gave the Democrat three delegates from Maryland, American Samoa, as a US territory, will not participate in the general election. Elections in November.
Despite his long shot at dethroning Biden as the Democratic nominee for president, Palmer told Business Insider that his campaign has grown in strength in recent weeks due to his embrace of technology like artificial intelligence. which they use for email and text messaging to voters. , as well as an AI-powered avatar on its website.
PalmerAI, a chatbot on his campaign site, features a candidate’s likeness and voice impression that can respond to voters in real time as they type questions for the candidate. Palmer’s photo features a somewhat uncharacteristic wink, nod, and slight smile before reading voters answers based on their questions.
“I’ve learned that when I talk to a voter and they feel like they know me, they’re more likely to vote for me, but if they don’t talk to me, then I’m just kind of a random person and they’re asking ‘Who is Jason Palmer?’ Like they’re all saying on talk shows these days,” Palmer told BI. “And so it’s an effort to give people an opportunity to ask their three or four questions up front, then they don’t have to read 25 pages of my website to find out what their policy position is.”
‘It’s able to track my position and improve it sometimes’
The candidate told BI that it took less than $25,000 for his campaign to build a version of PalmerAI, adding that he was “very impressed” with it. The bot came to life after Palmer spent hours reciting excerpts from speeches and books to himself to capture his voice, and his campaign plans to improve the bot’s response as it travels across the 16 states and territories. Proceedings continue where Palmer is listed on the ballot.
Although its residents are not able to vote in general elections, American Samoa has produced unexpected primary results before. In 2020, billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s only victory in the Democratic primaries came from the region. Despite the odds, Palmer hopes his win there will build momentum for his campaign in states like Arizona, Kansas and Missouri.
“It’s able to figure out my position and sometimes it’s even better if you ask me a question. If you ask me, I’m very literal and I take 60 seconds, but it’s you. gives a really tight response that’s like 10. seconds long,” Palmer said.
He added: “I think most people are blown away by our campaign using this technology because five years ago it would have cost $10 million to build. And one of the reasons is because the AI is so much better. But it’s also because I’m the first technology entrepreneur to ever run for president, and I’m not 80 years old, I’m actually at the peak of my business life.”
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to BI’s request for comment on whether the incumbent president plans to use AI in his re-election bid.
However, Biden was discouraged from voting in the New Hampshire primary by spoofing his voice in an AI-generated robocall, leading to Biden’s use of the tech to impersonate his voice during his State of the Union address. called for a ban, so it’s unlikely the 81-year-old is keen on the widespread adoption of AI in politics.