A virtual politician, or an AI politician refers to a non-human entity seeking or in government office. A virtual politician would have similar power to a human serving in the same position, but would be programmed to make choices based on an artificially intelligent algorithm.
Since the dawn of AI, machines have been put to work in various positions formerly held by humans for different reasons; repetitive tasks, or else to lighten the workload of humans. AI is increasingly being put to work in tasks that require human traits, [1] such as empathy, but has been used to replace human imperfections. It is thought by some that if an artificial intelligence, programmed on the right data, were to be placed in a position of power, it would be able to make informed decisions quickly, [2] and be able to give attention to the perspectives and needs of all whom it has power over. [3]
In 2019, the Centre for the Governance of Change at IE University found in a survey that a quarter of Europeans would want AI politicians at some capacity. [4] [5] The department and journals that reported on the poll [6] claimed that the result was likely due to the ongoing political climate of Brexit, [7] saying this caused the "growing mistrust citizens feel towards governments and politicians". [8]
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"SAM" is the name given to what is generally considered to be the first virtual politician. [9] SAM was created by New Zealand developer Nick Gerritsen, [10] and designed to represent the views and wants of people in New Zealand. [11] SAM is also linked to social media, in order to immediately address the concerns of voters.
SAM is intended to be put forward as a candidate in the New Zealand 2020 elections. [12]
The chatbot "Alice" or "Alisa" was nominated against Vladimir Putin for the 2018 Russian presidential election, [13] built by Yandex. [14] Similar to SAM, it was intended to be a public-minded and easily accessible bot through social media. It lost to Putin, but still gained a large portion of the vote. [14]
The chatbot "Leader Lars" or "Leder Lars" was nominated for The Synthetic Party to run in the 2022 Danish parliamentary election, [15] and was built by the artist collective Computer Lars. [16] Leader Lars differed from earlier virtual politicians by leading a political party and by not pretending to be an objective candidate. [17] This chatbot engaged in critical discussions on politics with users from around the world. [18]
Most moves toward any kind of virtual presence in government have been criticised, and while AI candidates have gained press traction in elections they've run in, they remain unpopular in the polls. One of the main criticisms is that a deep learning algorithm isn't advanced enough to be in a position of power, [19] and they may not be able to understand the human qualities and skills to properly assess solutions, or create new policies. [20] It's argued that AI will not be able to comprehend the deep complexities of human society, and will not make choices that cater to that. [5]
Artificially intelligent models require data to learn, and some complain that the data will not be objective enough. [5] In the past, AI has been known to have trained on biased data, [21] and thus, when in positions of important use, made costly mistakes. The purpose of having an AI politician would be the ability to work better than a human, and in theory it would be able to satisfy the political agenda of the people it had power over.
Artificial intelligence (AI), in its broadest sense, is intelligence exhibited by machines, particularly computer systems, as opposed to the natural intelligence of living beings. As a field of research in computer science focusing on the automation of intelligent behavior through machine learning, it develops and studies methods and software which enable machines to perceive their environment and take actions that maximize their chances of achieving defined goals, with the aim of performing tasks typically associated with human intelligence. Such machines may be called AIs.
A chatbot is a software application or web interface that is designed to mimic human conversation through text or voice interactions. Modern chatbots are typically online and use generative artificial intelligence systems that are capable of maintaining a conversation with a user in natural language and simulating the way a human would behave as a conversational partner. Such chatbots often use deep learning and natural language processing, but simpler chatbots have existed for decades.
Geoffrey Everest Hinton is a British-Canadian computer scientist and cognitive psychologist, most noted for his work on artificial neural networks. From 2013 to 2023, he divided his time working for Google and the University of Toronto, before publicly announcing his departure from Google in May 2023, citing concerns about the risks of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In 2017, he co-founded and became the chief scientific advisor of the Vector Institute in Toronto.
Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that can perform as well or better than humans on a wide range of cognitive tasks, as opposed to narrow AI, which is designed for specific tasks. It is one of various definitions of strong AI.
Weak artificial intelligence is artificial intelligence that implements a limited part of the mind, or, as narrow AI, is focused on one narrow task.
The ethics of artificial intelligence is the branch of the ethics of technology specific to artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used in applications throughout industry and academia. Similar to electricity or computers, AI serves as a general-purpose technology that has numerous applications. Its applications span language translation, image recognition, credit scoring, e-commerce and various other domains.
A virtual assistant (VA) is a software agent that can perform a range of tasks or services for a user based on user input such as commands or questions, including verbal ones. Such technologies often incorporate chatbot capabilities to simulate human conversation, such as via online chat, to facilitate interaction with their users. The interaction may be via text, graphical interface, or voice - as some virtual assistants are able to interpret human speech and respond via synthesized voices.
DeepMind Technologies Limited, doing business as Google DeepMind, is a British-American artificial intelligence research laboratory which serves as a subsidiary of Google. Founded in the UK in 2010, it was acquired by Google in 2014, the company is based in London, with research centres in Canada, France, Germany, and the United States.
Mustafa Suleyman is a British artificial intelligence (AI) entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Microsoft AI, and the co-founder and former head of applied AI at DeepMind, an AI company acquired by Google. After leaving DeepMind, he co-founded Inflection AI, a machine learning and generative AI company, in 2022.
In the field of artificial intelligence (AI), AI alignment research aims to steer AI systems toward a person's or group's intended goals, preferences, and ethical principles. An AI system is considered aligned if it advances its intended objectives. A misaligned AI system may pursue some objectives, but not the intended ones.
Artificial intelligence in healthcare is a term used to describe the use of machine-learning algorithms and software, or artificial intelligence (AI), to copy human cognition in the analysis, presentation, and understanding of complex medical and health care data, or to exceed human capabilities by providing new ways to diagnose, treat, or prevent disease. Specifically, AI is the ability of computer algorithms to arrive at approximate conclusions based solely on input data.
A military artificial intelligence arms race is an arms race between two or more states to develop and deploy lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). Since the mid-2010s, many analysts have noted the emergence of such an arms race between global superpowers for better military AI, driven by increasing geopolitical and military tensions.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has a range of uses in government. It can be used to further public policy objectives, as well as assist the public to interact with the government. According to the Harvard Business Review, "Applications of artificial intelligence to the public sector are broad and growing, with early experiments taking place around the world." Hila Mehr from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University notes that AI in government is not new, with postal services using machine methods in the late 1990s to recognise handwriting on envelopes to automatically route letters. The use of AI in government comes with significant benefits, including efficiencies resulting in cost savings, and reducing the opportunities for corruption. However, it also carries risks.
Synthetic media is a catch-all term for the artificial production, manipulation, and modification of data and media by automated means, especially through the use of artificial intelligence algorithms, such as for the purpose of misleading people or changing an original meaning. Synthetic media as a field has grown rapidly since the creation of generative adversarial networks, primarily through the rise of deepfakes as well as music synthesis, text generation, human image synthesis, speech synthesis, and more. Though experts use the term "synthetic media," individual methods such as deepfakes and text synthesis are sometimes not referred to as such by the media but instead by their respective terminology Significant attention arose towards the field of synthetic media starting in 2017 when Motherboard reported on the emergence of AI altered pornographic videos to insert the faces of famous actresses. Potential hazards of synthetic media include the spread of misinformation, further loss of trust in institutions such as media and government, the mass automation of creative and journalistic jobs and a retreat into AI-generated fantasy worlds. Synthetic media is an applied form of artificial imagination.
Government by algorithm is an alternative form of government or social ordering where the usage of computer algorithms is applied to regulations, law enforcement, and generally any aspect of everyday life such as transportation or land registration. The term "government by algorithm" has appeared in academic literature as an alternative for "algorithmic governance" in 2013. A related term, algorithmic regulation, is defined as setting the standard, monitoring and modifying behaviour by means of computational algorithms – automation of judiciary is in its scope. In the context of blockchain, it is also known as blockchain governance.
Artificial intelligence (AI) in hiring involves the use of technology to automate aspects of the hiring process. Advances in artificial intelligence, such as the advent of machine learning and the growth of big data, enable AI to be utilized to recruit, screen, and predict the success of applicants. Proponents of artificial intelligence in hiring claim it reduces bias, assists with finding qualified candidates, and frees up human resource workers' time for other tasks, while opponents worry that AI perpetuates inequalities in the workplace and will eliminate jobs. Despite the potential benefits, the ethical implications of AI in hiring remain a subject of debate, with concerns about algorithmic transparency, accountability, and the need for ongoing oversight to ensure fair and unbiased decision-making throughout the recruitment process.
Louis Barry Rosenberg is an American engineer, researcher, inventor, and entrepreneur. He researches augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. He was the Cotchett Endowed Professor of Educational Technology at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He founded the Immersion Corporation and Unanimous A.I., and he wrote the screenplay for the 2009 romantic comedy film, Lab Rats.
LaMDA is a family of conversational large language models developed by Google. Originally developed and introduced as Meena in 2020, the first-generation LaMDA was announced during the 2021 Google I/O keynote, while the second generation was announced the following year. In June 2022, LaMDA gained widespread attention when Google engineer Blake Lemoine made claims that the chatbot had become sentient. The scientific community has largely rejected Lemoine's claims, though it has led to conversations about the efficacy of the Turing test, which measures whether a computer can pass for a human. In February 2023, Google announced Bard, a conversational artificial intelligence chatbot powered by LaMDA, to counter the rise of OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Det Syntetiske Parti is the world's first political party driven by artificial intelligence with the goal of making generative text-to-text models not merely populist, what they are by default, but democratic. The party was founded in 2022 in Denmark.
AI is already populist by default in a certain sense (...) But even if it's populist, it's not democratic just yet.