The VIC bot and its “meat avatar,” Victor Miller, got 327 votes in Cheyenne, losing a primary election to incumbent Mayor Patrick Collins and two others.
A candidate running for the mayor of Cheyenne in the US state of Wyoming with an artificial intelligence bot has lost the primary election.
In results announced by Laramie County on Aug. 20, officials tabulated that nonpartisan candidate Victor Miller and his AI bot VIC — Virtual Integrated Citizen — got 327 votes from Cheyenne residents out of the roughly 11,000 cast in a primary election. Incumbent Patrick Collins, who has served as mayor of the Wyoming capital city since 2021, and Rick Coppinger will advance to the November general election.
“As the first person to put artificial intelligence directly on the ballot, offering voters the novel choice of AI governance, our campaign has marked a historic moment in politics and technology,” said Miller in an Aug. 20 concession statement. “I served merely as the necessary human interface to get this new form of intelligence on the ballot, since current laws don’t allow AI to run independently.”
