Andrew Gray, an aspiring politician in the UK, is taking a unique approach to creating his manifesto– his political opinions and goals. Instead of developing his own policies, he plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to determine what people want. Gray, who aims to become the Member of Parliament for Selby and Ainsty, will rely on machine learning through a tool called Polis to assess local public opinion, and then vote accordingly, if elected.
Polis is software that gathers and analyzes public sentiment in real time. It gained recognition initially in Taiwan, where it facilitates a platform for political debates known as vTaiwan. The project encourages collaboration between citizens and the government to co-create legislation. Polis has also been utilized by government authorities in America, Canada, Singapore, and by Gray himself.
Aside from his political aspirations, Gray is a lawyer and the leader of the non-profit Crowd Wisdom Project. He incorporates Polis as a tool to crowdsource solutions for contentious issues. His aim is to identify common ground among the populace and adopt these consensus points as his policies. Currently, Gray has employed Polis in Selby and Ainsty, where he is standing as an independent candidate in an upcoming by-election on July 20th.
This seat became vacant when the previous Conservative incumbent, Nigel Adams, resigned as an MP to join Boris Johnson’s camp. Interestingly, Gray has been involved with activism for the Conservatives Party, as well as for the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats. With such diverse allegiances, it seems plausible that Gray’s transition to AI-powered lawmaking is a logical progression.
Gray now employs Polis to collect opinions on various statements and allows constituents to propose their own ideas, which can be anonymously voted upon. According to him, the tool has proven its effectiveness already. In his neighboring constituency of Harrogate, Gray utilized Polis to gather viewpoints on a town centre development with a proposed default 20 mph speed limit. Despite these topics initially appearing divisive, consensus was easily achieved. Unfortunately, the council paid little attention to these conclusions.
Although experts in governance have praised the tool, they acknowledge its limitations in certain settings. Polis is better suited for smaller constituencies, where there is a greater demand for authorities to take immediate action. In comparison, older, larger, and more complex democracies may pose challenges to its effectiveness. Despite potential concerns surrounding AI transparency, biases, privacy, and accountability, Gray believes Polis has the ability to disrupt traditional party politics.
By voting for Gray, constituents would be choosing an elected official who is willing to vote for or against the government, or even abstain– if that is what his constituents want. This approach, according to Gray, would empower constituents, providing them with more democracy and control. He sees Selby and Ainsty as a pioneering constituency that can set an example for the rest of the country. Gray’s faith in Polis and the size of his constituency make it an ideal testing ground.
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