An artificial intelligence (AI)-generated candidate is on the ballot paper for next month's UK general election.
Steve Endacott, a British businessman, is running in the UK general election under the persona “AI Steve”.
The idea behind iSteve is to create a candidate available to answer voters' questions simultaneously and continuously, according to Endacott. People can ask “AI Steve” questions or share their opinions about Mr. Endacott's policies on his website. The large language model provides voice and text responses based on a database of party policy information.
“AI Steve is the AI co-pilot,” Endacott said in an interview with NBC News. “I am the real politician who goes to Parliament, but the co-pilot controls me.”
Additionally, AI Steve's platform allows voters to propose and vote on policies that the party will then adopt. “We ask them once a week to rate our policies from 1 to 10. If the policy gets more than 50%, it is approved. This is the official policy of the party,” the businessman told NBC.
“For every policy, I will say that my decision is the decision of my voters. I am in contact with my voters at any time and weekly via electronic means,” he added.
The businessman and his virtual double ran in the local elections in Brighton County under the banner of the Conservative Party, but they received only 500 votes.
Mr. Endacott is also the president of Neural Voice, a company that creates personalized voice assistants for businesses in the form of AI avatars. Neural audio technology is behind “AI Steve.”
“Total coffee aficionado. Travel buff. Music ninja. Bacon nerd. Beeraholic.”
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