Saturday 22nd June, 2024

Anything is possible in politics all over the world. It has been reported that the UK voters will be able to ‘elect the world’s first AI MP’ (AI Steve) in the forthcoming parliamentary election. This claim, which the international media has given wide publicity, is not entirely true, for AI Steve is only a virtual proxy candidate sans independent agency, as is obvious, standing in for a 59-year-old businessman, Steve Endacott, who will enter Parliament in case his AI avatar polling enough votes. In other words, there will be no AI lawmaker as such! It would have been more appropriate if media reports had said the British public would be able to vote for AI Steve and help its human namesake enter Parliament.

Endacott’s modus operandi is similar, in some respects, to a ruse used by Sri Lankan political parties, which gain mileage by presenting, as their National List nominees, eminent persons, who are appointed to Parliament and then made to resign so that the party leaders’ cronies can become MPs. It looks as if Endacott had taken a leaf out of our guys’ book and given it a technological twist to suit his purpose.

As for this method, a popular Sri Lankan saying comes to mind: nangi pennala akka denawa wage (‘like duping a man into marrying a not-so-attractive woman by showing him her pretty younger sister as the would-be bride during the customary betrothal visit’.) Something similar happened here in 2019, when the SLPP tricked the public into voting for Gotabaya so that Basil could run the country as an eminence grise.

Since AI Steve is a virtual persona, the wisdom of the British voters being made to vote for or against it is in question. This electoral experiment does not make sense. But such absurd things are to be expected in the Global North, where bizarreness is fast becoming the new normal.

Endacott reportedly refers to AI Steve as an ‘eco-friendly capitalist with a conscience, who is fed up with traditional politics’. It is said that his AI avatar can even ‘dodge questions like a real politician’. If so, AI Steve is no better than human politicians.

AI Steve is said to be capable of the following, among other things: having 10,000 conversations simultaneously, being always available for calls; engaging with voters in real-time on various issues such as LGBTQ rights, housing, garbage collection, the Israel-Hamas war, cycling lanes, and immigration; offering policy ideas and seeking public feedback; interacting with the candidates and discussing policies, ensuring continuous communication and responsiveness to public needs. All this is fine, and AI Steve’s capabilities will go a long way towards helping carry real Steve’s message across effectively and efficiently in the Brighton Pavilion constituency, but it defies comprehension why it should appear on the ballot.

Sri Lankan politicians also claim to be blessed with some of these capabilities, and the SLPP insists that its founder is blessed with as many as seven brains, which, however, failed him miserably in 2022 and left the task of saving his life to his legs, which carried him as fast as they could with violent mobs in close pursuit.

Perhaps, Sri Lankan politicians who have ruined the country and are scared of facing the public may benefit from Endacott’s method. The failed, corrupt SLPP politicians, and their Viyathmaga lackeys, the crooks who caused the downfall of the UNP and cannot go before the people again, may be able to use their AI avatars to engage in electioneering for them, for they run the risk of being roughed up if they take part in canvassing. But they will have to have their tarnished names on the ballot as Sri Lanka’s election laws do not provide for fielding proxy candidates, AI or otherwise. There’s the rub.