This year’s Super Tuesday went as expected, with unsurprisingly President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump gaining significant leads in their respective primaries. However, things did not go as Biden had hoped in American Samoa, where the incumbent lost to Jason Palmer, a Maryland businessman who said artificial intelligence was essential to Biden’s victory.
Having tried Palmer’s AI campaign tools ourselves, this claim raises some eyebrows, to say the least.
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Mr. Palmer, a high-tech venture capitalist, defeated Mr. Biden by a wide margin in the American Samoa presidential caucuses, but won by just 11 votes out of 91, a shocking victory. When you talk to wall street journal On Friday, he credited generative AI, known as PalmerAI, with contributing to efforts in the region. As a result, he was able to campaign in Samoa with just five full-time staff members.
Despite having never set foot on the small South Pacific island, Palmer said the chatbot helped him campaign virtually in an area he knew Biden didn’t have much of a campaign focus on. I am evaluating it. Mr. Palmer opined: WSJ He said people in Samoa felt as if he was there “because I did these virtual meetings and used AI to join them.”
PalmerAI cost $25,000 to create and was built in partnership with California-based software company Conversica.The company’s CEO said: WSJ The chatbot he helped build for Mr. Palmer has reached 44,000 voters across the United States, he said.
AI itself is nothing special. It’s a conversational AI that uses Palmer’s voice and likeness to talk to voters about his electoral stance. The AI has strict limitations and safeguards, and the specific datasets it was trained on, such as “his policies, what he has said publicly, his professional history, or topics related to his campaign or presidential election.” You are only allowed to talk about. . ”
When we tried it ourselves, we asked the AI about Mr. Palmer’s stance on hot-button political issues that matter to Americans, such as Israel/Palestine, reproductive rights, and systemic inequality. AI had an answer and a position on that. However, the AI did not respond to topics outside of its scope, such as its stance on sex work, or less serious topics such as “waffles or pancakes.”
Jason Palmer does support reparations.
Credit: Jason Palmer/Conversica
The debate about what spaces should allow the use of generative AI is a contentious one. Their use in elections is a new phenomenon, with growing concerns specifically about deepfakes and how they could affect presidential elections. In early January, the FCC banned AI robocalls after a deepfake of Biden’s voice told thousands of voters not to vote in the New Hampshire primary.
If anything, Palmer’s shock victory in American Samoa was due less to AI and more to voter dissatisfaction with President Biden. Voters have made clear their dissatisfaction with the president’s policies, from his age to his handling of the war in Gaza. In the case of Samoa in particular, because the island is a territory rather than a state, its residents cannot vote in federal elections, making this the only chance for their voices to be heard.
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