WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

AI is already used by mainstream political parties to formulate policies and insights, but it’s also increasingly being used to create new AI political leaders and ministers.

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So far, we’ve seen the unveiling of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) foreign minister in China, Google’s AI “conquer” democracy, and IBM Watson debating how best to redistribute wealth, so it seems only natural that now a new political party in Denmark, whose policies are derived entirely from AI, hopes to stand in the country’s next general election in June 2023.

Launched in late May by the artists’ collective Computer Lars, the so called Synthetic Party wants to reach out to the around 15 percent of Danes who did not exercise their right to vote in the previous election in 2019.

The party believes they did not vote because none of the traditional parties appealed to them.

By analysing all of Denmark’s fringe parties’ written publications since 1970, the Synthetic Party’s AI has devised a programme that it believes represents “the political visions of the everyday person.”

One of the members of the collective, Asker Bryld Staunaes, told AFP that the party “takes its departure in an analysis of optimising the voting system in Denmark.” Denmark currently has 230 micro-parties that are based more on mocking or criticising society than actual political policy.

“It’s a way to mimic and simulate the political process throughout but in a direct confrontation of the apparatus of law making and political enforcement and organisation rights,” said Bryld Staunaes whose script would probably sound better if it had in fact been written by an AI …

The Synthetic Party’s proposal includes the introduction of a Universal Basic Income of 100,000 kroner a month which is more than double the average Danish salary.

The party also backs the addition of an 18th UN sustainable development goal that would allow “humans and algorithms to coexist more directly than now.” Bryld Staunaes said.

To stand in the 2023 election, the party needs 20,182 signatures but currently has just four, according to official election data, so while the chances of the AI making it to parliament are slim, if it does manage to win a seat, it plans to use its mandate to “link AI and humans within a democratic setting.”

People would be able to interact directly with the party’s AI on the messaging platform Discord via chatbots, and ever the optimists the party plans to hold its first election rally ”for a human audience” this month.