‘AI Steve’, the first AI-made candidate, is running in the UK general election

Businessman Steve Endacott It is presented as independent candidate in the elections of July 4th in the UK, with an AI-generated avatar called “AI Steve” backing his campaign.

Endacott’s party, ‘Smarter UK’, was not registered in time for the election, which is why ‘IA Steve’ will run as an independent.

“Say Hello to AI Steve, the AI ​​Chatbot Running for Parliament in the UK

(…) Created by Neural Voice, a company specializing in conversational AI where Endacott is chairman, AI Steve is comprised of a chatbot and an AI-generated avatar of Endacott.

The plan is for AI Steve to… pic.twitter.com/ZOnuHhEFo6

— Yana D’Cortona (@dicortona) June 15, 2024

Steve Endacottof 59 years old and director of Neural Voiceis launching a new party that plans to recruit more AI candidates across the country, according to reports The Guardian and NDTV World.

The Election Commission has clarified that if IA Steve wins, It will be Mr. Endacott and not artificial intelligence who will serve as the Member of parliament (MP).

IA Steve is a candidate on the list for the July 4 general election at Brighton Pavilionwhich was last occupied by the Green Party MP Caroline Lucaswho is retiring.

The Brighton Pavilion, literally translated as ‘Brighton Pavilion’, is a constituency represented, until now, in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by Caroline Lucas of the Green party.

Endacott, a self-proclaimed businessman who lives in Rochdale, maintains a home in Brighton.

The creator of AI, who is the president of an artificial intelligence company called Neural Voice but “made his fortune” in the travel industry, says he will attend Parliament to vote on policies that potential voters write on ‘IA Steve’s’ websitethis way, will use feedback from its constituents.

These GenAI models enable digital humans access dataperform tasks, or resolve situationsand in the case of AI Steve, his mission is to decide what policy his voters want him to support or not support, whether it is good for his voters or not.

That is the goal, “policies for the people created by the people”, and that the politician the people choose does not have a life of his own but has to vote on what AI Steve has consolidated with his creators and validators.

The GenAI It is a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses on the creation of algorithms and models capable of producing original and novel content, such as images, text and music.

Instead of analyzing pre-existing data, GenAI is dedicated to Generate unique and creative contentIts ability to create media, learning systems and processes, primarily in response to natural language instructions, makes it a versatile and accessible tool without the need for specialized programming knowledge.

The candidate has stated that the AI ​​representative will respond to voters’ concerns and questions. using a rendition of Endacott’s voice and an avatar.

‘IA Steve’ allows people interested in setting policy for Brighton & Hove County to join together as “Creators”.

Through this program, participants can interact with AI, discuss and analyze problems related to a specific topicallowing questions to be asked and proposals to be validated based on existing legislation.

In short, IA Steve summarises the conversations so that all citizens can contribute at any time: “IA Steve was created to make sure that the people of Brighton and Hove had access to 24 hours a day to express opinions and create policies“, he wrote on his website.

These proposals will be validated by The “Validators” that will assign scores to the ideasso that those who obtain More than 50% support will be supported by ‘IA Steve’.

Although a Digital Human cannot hold public office, Steve Endacott, the Human Entrepreneur, will be the one who carries out the AI ​​decisions Steve.

The 59-year-old entrepreneur describes himself as a “capitalist with a socialist conscience.” On AI, Endacott writes on his website that “Steve comes from a working class familywith a mother who worked in Tesco and a father who unloaded ships at Sheppey Docks.”

“He understands the value of money and is extremely grateful that The success of his business has left him relatively comfortable and able to enter politics without the need for the financial rewards that others seek.”

On climate change, he says: “Steve is deeply concerned about global warmingbut is hesitant to join the Green Party as it focuses on implementing practical and affordable green policies.”

Endacott he ran unsuccessfully for the Conservativesthe Conservative and Unionist Party, in a local election in Rochdale in 2022 in the Milnrow & Newhey district.

In that election, the businessman and candidate with ‘AI Steve’ for the next elections, received 487 votes.

Other candidates at Brighton Pavilion include Siân Berry for the Greens, Tom Gray for the Labour Party, Ashley Ridley for the Liberal Democrats and Sarah Webster for the Conservatives.

AI in other elections

The use of AI is generally controversial, and even more so when it is used in such serious matters as elections. Furthermore, ‘AI Steve’ has been released in a context in which the Internet is saturated with political content generated by artificial intelligence.

A Robot with artificial voice imitating Joe Biden has been Calling voters in the primaries from New Hampshire, while In India voters have been bombarded with deepfakesor deep-fakes, generated by AI.

Although ‘synthetic’ content is nothing new, the ease with which it can be created It is a recent trend whose consequences are still unknown.

GenAI Risk

However, it is important to note that although generative AI can be a powerful and useful toolalso carries significant risks if not handled properly.

Fact checking and careful monitoring are essential to ensure that the content generated is accurate and reliable.

This means that when GenAI lies, the consequences can be serious and expensive. It is crucial that people using ‘AI Steve’ are aware of the associated risks with the use of GenAI and take proactive steps to mitigate them.

By taking a careful and cautious approach, users using ‘AI Steve’ can benefit from the innovations offered by generative AI. without falling into the traps of misinformation and the falsehood that could influence public opinion ahead of the elections and manipulate decision-making.