An artificial intelligence (AI) model running for mayor in Wyoming has been taken offline – to the possible relief of its human rivals.
system, a customized version of the Large Language Model (LLM). GPT-4 who powers OpenAI's ChatGPT, was running for mayor in Cheyenne, Wyoming as “VIC,” short for “Virtually Integrated Citizen.”
Cheyenne resident Victor Miller set up a virtual candidate and LLM training on thousands of documents from town council meetings after a frustrating encounter with the city's records department. He hoped his digital candidate would defeat incumbent Patrick Collins when residents voted on November 5.
But VIC's election bid was cut short on June 18, when OpenAI cut off Miller's access to the public version of the tool, CNN reported.
“We have taken action against these uses of our technology for violating our policies against political campaigning,” an OpenAI spokesperson told CNN.
Related: AI models could consume all written knowledge on the Internet by 2026.
OpenAI prohibits users from using its applications for political campaigning and lobbying, including the production of AI-generated “deepfake” images to spread political disinformation.
“Wyoming law is clear that, in order to run for office, one must be 'electable,' which must be an actual person,” Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck emailed the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. wrote in a statement. “Therefore, an AI bot is not eligible.”
Despite experts warning that AI systems should not be left alone to make decisions, LLMs and other generative AI tools are being considered for a number of applications in public life. For example, on May 29, a federal appeals court judge suggested that AI systems could help interpret the content of legal texts.
Miller's use of a creative AI model was novel, but AI is not new to politics. For example, deepfakes are becoming a common tactic to try to sway public opinion during elections, warns a recent study by Google's DeepMind division.
Even though VIC is no longer publicly available, Miller hasn't given up hope. He told CNN that the chatbot still works on his personal account, and that he plans to bring it to a local Cheyenne library so voters can ask him questions using its text-to-speech feature.