With the UK heading for next month’s general election, a new type of politician is making its debut: AI candidate Steve, an avatar of Brighton businessman Stephen Endacott, is running as an independent for parliament.
Voters can vote for AI Steve, ask him for policy positions, or raise their own issues, which AI Steve will then incorporate into the platform.
Endacott will be personally representing AI Steve at conferences and parliamentary sessions. He sees AI Steve as a way to bring about a more direct democracy. “I think we’re reinventing politics using AI as the technology base, the co-pilot, not to replace politicians but to really connect politicians with their audiences, their constituencies,” Endacott says.
Currently, AI Steve is mistakenly listed on the ballot as Steve AI, and Endacott is working to correct this.
AI Steve was designed by Neural Voice, an AI voice company where Endacott serves as chairman. According to the company’s co-founder, Jeremy Smith, AI Steve can have up to 10,000 conversations at a time. “The key element is creating your own database of information,” Smith says. “And then how do you populate that with customer data?”
The idea for AI Steve was born out of Endacott’s own frustration with trying to get into politics to advocate for issues he cares about. “I’m very concerned about the environment, and we need a lot of changes in government to actually curb climate change,” he says. “The only way to get that done is to stop talking to the outside world, get inside the tent, and actually start changing policy.” Endacott says that when he tried to run for office a few years ago, he found it too much about party politics and worrying about which seats and districts were “safe,” instead of serving the needs of real people.
AI Steve, he argues, is different: It would transcribe and analyze conversations with constituents and then pitch policy issues to “validators” – members of the public who can indicate whether they care about an issue or want to see a particular policy enacted.
Endacott said his team would play their part by contacting commuters at Brighton station, about an hour outside London, asking them to complete a short policy survey via email on their way into the city.
“It makes sense to me to have a voting system of validators who can actually check that policies are common sense and then give them the power to say, ‘This is how I want Congress to vote,'” Endacott said.
AI Steve has only been available for a day, but Endacott and Smith said the main concerns of people who have contacted AI Steve are local issues, such as the Palestinian conflict and trash collection.
Endacott said he expects his own opinions and policy preferences may one day differ from AI Steve’s, but that he is committed to voting in line with the preferences of voters as expressed through AI Steve.
“In a democracy, it’s what the voters want,” he says. “It sounds so obvious that politicians should take their cues from the voters. And if you don’t like it, too bad, get out of office.”
