--- title: "OpenAI Imprisons AI That Was Running for Mayor in Wyoming" description: "Diva Down OpenAI has removed VIC, the AI chatbot running for mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming, from public-facing service. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that it had \"taken action against\" VIC — which stands for \"Virtually Integrated Citizen\" — on grounds that the chatbot violated the company's \"policies against political campaigning.\" Indeed, as […]" date: "2024-06-20" modified: "2024-06-20" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-imprisons-ai-that-was-running-for-mayor-in-wyoming" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "ai" - "OpenAI" - "politics" - "the digest" --- # OpenAI Imprisons AI That Was Running for Mayor in Wyoming ![OpenAI confirmed that it has removed VIC, the AI chatbot running for mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming, from public view.]() *\Image: Silas Stein / picture alliance via Getty / Futurism\* ## Diva Down OpenAI has removed VIC, the AI chatbot [running for mayor]() of Cheyenne, Wyoming, from public-facing service. An OpenAI spokesperson [confirmed to *CNN*]() on Tuesday that it had "taken action against" VIC — which stands for "Virtually Integrated Citizen" — on grounds that the chatbot violated the company's "policies against political campaigning." Indeed, as OpenAI stated in a [January blog post](), it's not yet allowing politicians or political groups to use its tech to create campaign materials. As it stands, according to OpenAI, a wholly AI-generated politician fits that bill. It's surely a loss for mayoral hopeful VIC and its creator, Cheyenne resident Victor Miller. But OpenAI's decision is a win for Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who's argued that the AI isn't qualified for an electoral bid based on its lack of being a human in a physical body. "Wyoming law is clear that, to run for office, one must be a 'qualified elector,' which necessitates being a real person," Gray told *CNN* in a statement. "Therefore, an AI bot is not a qualified elector." ## Still Kickin' That said, according to Miller, the bot isn't *totally* dead just yet. VIC is a custom GPT — which, in short, is a specialized version of ChatGPT trained for a specific purpose, or on a specific set of data. (In VIC's case, as Miller [recently told ]()*[Wired](),* it was trained on thousands of documents taken from Cheyenne council meetings.) As it stands, VIC is no longer publicly available through OpenAI's platform. But as Miller explained to *CNN*, he still retains personal access, and plans to invite Cheyenne residents to interact with VIC at a local library meet-up. Miller, who — as he's told multiple outlets — decided an AI would be a solid mayor after a bad experience with the Wyoming capital city's records department, told *CNN* he thinks an AI mayor "could add a layer to help a town." But experts aren't so sure that an AI chatbot is ready to make political decisions. "When it comes to AI now and what it will be like in the future, it should never be used to make automated decisions," Jen Golbeck, a professor in the University of Maryland's College of Information Sciences, told *CNN*. "AI has always been designed for decision support — it gives some data to help a human make decisions but is not set up to make decisions by itself." VIC has another major hurdle ahead. Local authorities are still investigating whether the bot's lack of physical form disqualifies it from the ticket — and if they do find that VIC's run is technically against the law, getting the boot from OpenAI will be the least of Miller's worries. *Updated to correctly identify the state of Wyoming.* **More on VIC:** [*Authorities Investigating AI Running for Mayor in Wyoming*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()