Newcastle technology company Uptivity wanted to field an AI politician in the British general election, but the Electoral Commission denied its application.
R&D manager Ash Nehmet said: “I listen to political interviews on the radio, and I just zone out. I don’t hear anything inspiring, just meaningless sentences when I want honest solutions. Being a technology company, I wondered how artificial intelligence (AI) might help.”
Nehmet added: “I think we could create an AI member of parliament, with the perspective of the constituency’s average person. In parliament, our politician Justin Sell would table meaningful, pointed questions, reflecting the views of the man-in-the-street. For women, Justin could become Justine by using data from women. Justin would be available to constituents 24/7 whilst also being in parliament, be completely selfless and not claim any expenses. We could have a winner. It might even get to be PM one day. That is why we’ve been denied; they know we would probably do a better job!”
Justin Sell is just a play on JustSell, the company’s B2B ecommerce platform., and the company added that the name could become Justine should the country prefer a female PM. Initially, the character would be a head, seen and heard on an iPad. Later, Nehemet said the company would use his or her MP salary to create a humanoid. The firm would also seek further development of the AI, embedding Justin/e with feelings to feel and express sadness, hurt, happiness and anger.
Unfortuneately, the Electoral Commission was not convinced by Justin/e.
“I’m disappointed with the election commission, but we’ll concentrate on developing what we call, Applied AI (AAI), which is real-world, everyday applications of AI, often paired with sensors and hardware,” said Nehmet. “Initially, it will be with our MaintanPad application and JustSell, but who knows what we might do in the future. Sometimes, my mind turns to time travel, but that might be too difficult just yet.”
