Meet the Long-Shot Candidate Letting AI Run His Campaign

The relationship between artificial intelligence and politics is fraught, to say the least. Policymakers at the highest levels are fighting against deepfakes and disinformation campaigns, while all major AI platforms place tight guardrails around election-related prompts and many prohibit use by politicians.

But one candidate for U.S. president—albeit not on any ballots to date—is all-in on AI.

Thomas Ross is using artificial intelligence to run his campaign after winning the nomination of the U.S. Transhumanist Party in May 2023. In fact, he has named his generative AI chatbot Emvee, and takes its advice.

“I use Emvee for strategy specifically,” Ross told Decrypt in an interview, noting that the name comes from a character in his science fiction novel series. “In fact, it was she who suggested that for the campaign, I should lean into the conspiracy theories about AI and transhumanism because it would gain attention and prompt discussions that could defuse those conspiracies.”

Others attempting to leverage artificial intelligence in political campaigns include Ohio Democratic congressional candidate Matthew Diemer, who partnered with London-based Civox to create an AI version of himself to help engage with voters.

“It's no different than sending out blogs, emails, text messages, TikToks, or tweets,” Diemer previously told Decrypt. “This is another way for people to interact with me and have more of a connection.”

But Ross is putting AI front and center. He has branded his campaign with an air of a cybernetic future where AI and humanity co-exist side by side, also known as the singularity. The AI tool that Ross employs as a campaign manager is based on technology developed by Norn AI.

He is keenly aware of his infinitesimal chances of success in November. But he said the point of running is to raise awareness of transhumanism and fight back against misinformation about AI.

“I've been on this campaign to alleviate the fear of AI for years, because it is a valuable tool that can help with this fight against human trafficking and all kinds of things,” he said. “I always say that's the Hollywood military-industrial complex that is trying to make us afraid of this thing.”

Founded in 2014 by author, journalist, and transhumanist Zoltan Istvan, the Transhumanist Party first fielded a candidate in 2016 when Istvan ran for U.S. president. Istvan’s campaign was the subject of the 2019 documentary “Immortality or Bust.”

The party claims to have over 4,200 members nationwide. Last year, Ross won the party nomination with 62% of the vote. He selected Daniel Twedt as his running mate.

For many in the transhumanist and longevity movement, the end goal is to end the threat of death and extend life indefinitely. Still, according to Ross, a lot of preparation will have to go into making the world and humanity ready for immortality.

“I think we need to do a lot of work before we ‘murder’ death—we need to do a lot of work to prepare our economy and to make way for younger people,” Ross said. “Because if even if we live ten years longer, a lot of young people lose a lot of employment opportunities, it will just have a ripple effect.”

Ross suggested that artificial intelligence and blockchain technology could be used to eliminate government corruption and uncover dark money entering Washington.

“I have an initiative called Dark Audits, where a third-party AI system [audits] these federal officials to see exactly where their money is coming from,” Ross said. “If we had a third-party AI system, not the IRS, that was auditing, we could see whether they're getting their money from lobbyists, oligarchy, or whoever.”

Ross says the political system in the U.S., like a computer, needs to be cleaned out and reset, using campaign slogans like “Augmenting Politics with Reality” and “Defrag America.”

“It’s divide and rule institutionalized when you have two parties, this duopoly that we are subject to, and they play off each other,” he said.

Before America can be reset, however, Ross believes the two-party political system must end. In his 2024 campaign book “Open Source Citizen,” he called it “a two-headed snake that’s fed on fear.”

“We want to turn the country off and then back on again,” Ross said. “If defragging doesn't work, we’ll reformat it.”