Victor Miller, who was running for Wyoming’s state capital as an artificial intelligence-powered bot called “VIC” (Virtual Integrated Citizen), confirmed his candidacy on Wednesday in a move that will make techno-political history.
Miller received 327 votes, or about 3 percent of the total votes, in Cheyenne’s nonpartisan mayoral primary on Tuesday night, according to Laramie County records.
Fox News Digital obtained a statement from Miller on Wednesday, saying he and Victoria had fallen short in their attempts to redefine political institutions in the Cowboy State’s capital city.
“Today, I, Victor Miller, concede defeat in the race for mayor of Cheyenne. Our campaign marked a historic moment in politics and technology as the first to put artificial intelligence directly on the ballot, offering voters the transformative choice to be governed by artificial intelligence,” Miller said.
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The Laramie County Courthouse is located in downtown Cheyenne, Wyoming, not far from the state capitol. (Don and Melinda Crawford/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Miller, who works at the county library and also works in artificial intelligence, congratulated the primary winners on Wednesday. He spoke to Fox News Digital in July about his Victoria candidacy.
“While we didn’t win the election, we did something incredible: we introduced the world to a new paradigm of governance and sparked an important conversation about the role of AI in government,” Miller said. “The seeds of a revolution in governance have been sown and are already beginning to sprout.”
Incumbent Mayor Patrick Collins and runner-up Rick Coppinger have advanced to the November general election.
Miller previously told Fox News Digital that he was a “public records advocate” and had grown “frustrated” with the public-facing aspects of city government.
He also said that his work with AI programs has led him to realise that technology can be taught to understand and comply with the law without human error or “adverse behaviour”.
In that vein, Miller this week announced the formation of the Rational Governance Alliance (RGA), which aims to further expand the application of AI to governance decisions.
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The RGA will create a framework that would allow AI to assume full responsibility for decision-making in public office, “with humans serving as the legal and physical intermediaries required by the current system,” Miller said.
“We believe this approach will lead to more efficient, transparent and equitable governance.”
Shortly before his final interview with Fox News Digital, the platform OpenAI shut down VIC’s accounts, dealing a blow to the bot campaign. Though Miller retained access to VIC’s technology, he said it was a major setback.
Miller said at the time he never imagined he’d run for office with or as an AI bot, adding that he reached out to tech leaders including Elon Musk for help expanding the reach of this new technology frontier, especially after OpenAI’s setbacks.
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Cybersecurity prevention specialist work. (AT&T)
Musk did not respond to a request for comment at the time.
Meanwhile, across the pond in Brighton, England, Stephen Endacott announced his candidacy for parliament this year with the help of his bot, AI Steve.
Miller said he was excited to hear there were similar candidates.
However, British media reports said that in July’s election, Green Party candidate Sian Berry defeated Bott in the Brighton Pavilion constituency, and Labour’s Keir Starmer was elected prime minister.
