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AI Politician That May Soon Run For New Zealand Elections In 2020 Makes Way
AI Politician That May Soon Run For New Zealand Elections In 2020 Makes Way

AI Politician That May Soon Run For New Zealand Elections In 2020 Makes Way

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Key takeaways

  • SAM is an artificial intelligence developed to engage with citizens on local policy issues.
  • The AI, created by Nick Gerritsen, is designed to learn continuously and interact via Facebook Messenger.
  • Gerritsen aims for SAM to address biases in traditional politics and tackle complex global issues.
  • The AI seeks to bridge political and cultural divides while still being in its learning phase.
5 min
SAM, the new artificial intelligence is developed by scientists and has the potential to act as a new version of politician addressing people’s queries regarding local issues such as policies around important subjects—including housing, education, immigration etc. [caption id="attachment_19323" align="alignright" width="267"] Photo credit: Mark Tantrum / www.marktantrum.com[/caption] The virtual politician created by Nick Gerritsen, a 49-year-old entrepreneur based out of New Zealand, is constantly learning, and currently responds to people through Facebook Messenger as well as a survey on its homepage. Gerritsen believes that there is a lot of bias in the analog practice of politics right now and the countries across the globe are unable to address fundamental and multiple complex issues like climate change and equality. With this invention, which is still in the learning stage, he hopes that SAM would be looked upon by many as a way to bridge growing political and cultural differences in many countries. With infinite memory that the AI is blessed with, it may never ignore what people tell it. “Unlike a human politician, I consider everyone’s position, without bias, when making decision”, it reportedly said when asked to tell about itself. With its ability to understand people’s opinion and to be able to better represent them, it looks forward to address the issues that people of New Zealand care about most, in the most effective way. Looking at its advanced growth, the makers of SAM are quite hopeful that it could soon have the potential to run as a candidate for New Zealand’s next general elections by 2020. However, there are barriers to overcome, the legality of AI to run in the elections, being the crucial one, and their makers are keen to overcome these boundaries soon.   The recent developments around AI are have seen desperate attempts to equal human capabilities—Spohia being granted first Saudi Arabia citizenship, Mirai of Japan fetching its residency, being a few.
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