Cheyenne, Wyoming, elects human mayor

Despite much hubbub in recent months, the first political candidate to put an artificial intelligence chatbot on the ballot lost his mayoral race by a wide margin on Tuesday.

Victor Miller had pledged to govern the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming, using a custom-built AI chatbot called VIC, short for Virtual Integrated Citizen. Miller’s corporeal being would have served as a sort of “meat avatar” for the bot, performing any duties it couldn’t have, like attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies, kissing babies or signing the paperwork that would have made official any policies VIC had decreed.

Of 11,036 votes, Miller and his bot received 327.

Incumbent nonpartisan Mayor Patrick Collins, who received 6,286 votes, will continue to govern the city of 65,000 residents, presumably without the aid of ChatGPT.

In a press release distributed Tuesday evening, Miller conceded the race and congratulated Collins, but also in turns called his own campaign “historic,” “groundbreaking,” “remarkable” and “revolutionary.”

“Our campaign wasn’t about me as a candidate, but about offering voters a groundbreaking option: the chance to elect an AI that would make 100% of the decisions in office,” the letter reads. “I served merely as the necessary human interface to get this new form of intelligence on the ballot, since current laws don’t allow AI to run independently.”

Miller cited himself as the first example of what he calls a “rationally bound delegate.” His letter also announces the formation of a new group, the Rational Governance Alliance.

“This organization aims to expand on our campaign’s core idea: putting AI directly in charge of governance decisions,” the letter reads. “The RGA’s mission is to create a framework where AI can take on the full responsibility of decision-making in public office, with humans serving as the legal and physical intermediaries required by current systems.”

If he’d won the race, Miller might have faced some early technical obstacles. OpenAI, the company that owns ChatGPT 3.0, the large language model Miller used to create VIC, doesn’t allow its software to be used for political campaigning. In June, OpenAI shut down public access to VIC before eventually shutting out Miller.

But that Miller managed to stay on the ballot was a victory of sorts after the controversy of his campaign. In June, the city replaced VIC’s name on the ballot with Miller’s after Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray wrote in a letter to the city that he was concerned VIC being the official candidate would have violated state law.

The novelty of Miller’s campaign earned him press coverage in major publications in the U.S. His campaign also drew media coverage in Europe and Asia.

Miller’s apparent belief in generative AI models like those offered by OpenAI sometimes appears unbounded. He told Wired he was impressed by ChatGPT’s ability to synthesize many city documents and that he believes today’s AI models are “way smarter” than both himself and the nation’s many public servants. In a social media post last month he encouraged supporters to “hack our democracy” and “get drunk on intelligence.”

More than once, Miller’s AI optimism has been challenged. One Princeton University professor interviewed by The Washington Post likened Miller’s plan in Cheyenne to replacing a car with a cardboard cutout of a car.

And though Cheyenne’s mayor remains human, Miller sounds in his letter undeterred, intent on continuing to advocate for what he calls “the future of democracy” — a future powered by AI software that can supply “more efficient, transparent, and unbiased governance.”

“The time has come to move beyond the constraints of human bias and self-interest in public office,” his letter reads. “We stand at the threshold of a governance revolution – one that promises decisions based on data and logic rather than political expediency, where the interests of all citizens are equally considered.”

And when asked over email who had written Miller’s press release, he offered a characteristic response.

“It was a collaboration but VIC did most of the work,” Miller wrote. “He is smart!”