Wyoming man tries making AI mayor of Cheyenne

When Victor Miller discovered a policy in his city that he says wasn’t in line with the law, he got an idea: use artificial intelligence to effectively run Cheyenne, Wyoming.

His thinking was that an AI versed in every line of legal code wouldn’t write a policy that violates it.

“Our last City Council meeting had 422 pages of supporting documents — it’s almost an entire ream of paper of, you know, real thick, dense information,” Miller said. “VIC just eats it up and dominates it and makes a really educated vote based on the supporting documents.”

VIC stands for Virtual Integrated Citizen, Miller’s custom ChatGPT that he proposed putting in charge of the mayor’s vote at city council.

“I am the man who has rights to be on the ballot and that’s the system we have to work on, so I’m the one who’s on the ballot. You’re voting for me. I am promising to bring this technology and this intelligence to the people of Cheyenne to help our town,” he said.

At the Wyoming secretary of state’s office, though, officials see a problem: Victor Miller didn’t use his full name in filing the paperwork to run for mayor. He used “Vic.”

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“Vic” is short for Victor, yes, but it’s also the name of the would-be-mayor ChatGPT. That led Secretary of State Chuck Gray to say the candidacy is invalid.

“Wyoming state law is very clear that an AI bot is not eligible to be a candidate for election,” Gray said.

Miller says he’s inclined to sue for an infringement of his First Amendment rights if he’s kept off the mayoral ballot. Gray said Miller has that right, “but I think that it’s very important that we follow the laws of the state of Wyoming, and Wyoming state law is very clear that an AI bot cannot be a candidate for office.”

As for Miller’s plans if he prevails, he says VIC would have his complete trust.

“I would never second-guess the product that I have,” he said. “I think it’s more intelligent than me. I think it’s more intelligent than anyone we could put in that board voting room. And in order to have an opinion, I would have to read those horrible documents, and then I would have to have the arrogance to think that I’m more intelligent than this thing, and then I would have to disagree.”