In an unprecedented move, an artificial intelligence candidate is set to appear on the ballot for the United Kingdom’s general election next month. “AI Steve,” represented by Sussex businessman Steve Endacott, will be running alongside human candidates to represent constituents in the Brighton Pavilion area of Brighton and Hove, a city on England’s southern coast.

“AI Steve is the AI co-pilot,” Endacott explained in an interview. “I’m the real politician going into Parliament, but I’m controlled by my co-pilot.” Endacott is the chairman of Neural Voice, a company specializing in creating personalized voice assistants for businesses using AI avatars. AI Steve is one of seven characters developed by Neural Voice to showcase their technology.

The innovative idea behind AI Steve is to utilize AI for creating a politician who is always available to engage with constituents and consider their views. People can interact with AI Steve through a dedicated website, where they can ask questions or share their opinions on Endacott’s policies. The AI, powered by a large language model, provides responses in both voice and text, drawing from a comprehensive database of party policies. If a particular issue lacks a policy, the AI will conduct internet research before engaging with the voter and encouraging them to suggest a policy.

AI Steve, accessible to the public, recently responded to a query about Brexit by saying, “As a democracy, the UK voted to leave, and it’s my responsibility to implement and optimize this decision regardless of my personal views on the matter.” It further asked, “Do you have any thoughts on how Brexit should be managed in the future?”

Endacott aims to engage thousands of what he calls “validators” – people he believes represent the average citizen, particularly Brighton locals with long daily commutes. “We’re asking them once a week to score our policies from 1 to 10. If a policy gets more than 50%, it gets passed. And that’s the official party policy,” he explained. “Every single policy, I will say that my decision is my voters’ decision. And I’m connected to my voters at any time on a weekly basis via electronic means.”

Endacott previously ran unsuccessfully in a local election under the Conservative Party, receiving less than 500 votes. This time, the unique nature of his candidacy sparked significant interest on social media, leading to around 1,000 calls to the AI proxy in one night. According to those calls, the top issues for voters were concerns about the safety of Palestinians, trash bins, bicycle lanes, immigration, and abortion.

Endacott believes that having an AI representative enables him to respond to thousands of potential constituents daily. “I don’t have to go knock on their door, get them out of bed when they don’t want to talk to me,” he said, contrasting this with what he calls “the old form of politics.” Instead, people can choose to contact AI Steve at their convenience.

Describing himself as a “centralist” who closely aligns with, but is not a part of, the Green Party, Endacott was unable to register his own party, Smarter U.K., in time for this year’s election. He insists that his use of the AI avatar is not to promote his business interests, as he holds less than a 10% share in Neural River, the platform behind AI Steve. His primary goal is to push the government to enact changes to reduce carbon emissions, whether through winning an election or becoming a political influencer.

If elected, AI Steve would be the first AI legislator in public office. While this concept may seem outlandish to some, Endacott emphasizes that his platform is “not a joke.” He clarifies that the AI is not replacing a human politician but is a tool to bring “more humans” into politics. “It’s not AI taking over the world. It’s AI being used as a technical way of connecting to our constituents and reinventing democracy by saying, ‘You don’t just vote for somebody every four years; you actually control the vote on an ongoing basis,’” he said. “Which is very, very radical in the U.K. Probably even more radical in America