Genta Abdiji – Student Intern at MeDisInfo *
Examining ‘The Waldo Moment’ and Its Real-World Implications for Political AI
“The Waldo Moment” is the third episode of the second season of the British series “Black Mirror”, which was directed by Bryn Higgins and written by Charlie Brooker, that aired on February 25, 2013. This cinematographic gem explores the character named Waldo who becomes an unexpected political face and force in the real world. From owning a children’s educational TV show who in reality is a character on late-night comedy shows, he uses satire to mock the political process which makes him gain popularity and attention as a better alternative for the population. But nowadays, there’s another segment in the light of reality: Brighton’s candidate for the UK’s first ‘AI MP’.
We wonder, is it an echo of “The Waldo Moment”? Is a black mirror** leading our reality?
AI Steve is an independent nominee of the candidates list for the 4 July general election in Brighton Pavilion in the United Kingdom. He refers to himself as the only candidate who can have a conversation with 45.000 constituents at the same time. As someone who aims to attend the parliament in the future, he now lives in Rochdale with his wife, restricting his time to talk to his constituents in Brighton and Hove.
Steve Endacott, a self described entrepreneur, the chair of the company called “Neural Voice” is the man behind AI Steve, UK’S first AI MP. A person who gained his fortune in the travel section, aims to attend the parliament to vote on policies by posting on his website that: “AI Steve was created to ensure that the people of Brighton and Hove had 24/7 access to leave opinions and create policies” , as Jamie Grierson, a news reporter, wrote in The Guardian. He also highlights that as a person who outlines himself like a “capitalist with a socialist conscience”, Endacott claims that: “Steve comes from a working-class background, with a mother who worked in Tesco and a father who unloaded ships in Sheppey docks”. Someone who aims to attend the parliament in the future, Steve now lives in Rochdale with his wife, restricting his time to talk to his constituents in Brighton and Hove, as he shares these details on his website AI Steve. But the more we dive into this, the more it associates us with a blue bear, who challenged the political agenda a lot, even though he was a fictional character.
The connection between AI Steve and The Waldo Moment is purely clear as it highlights the fact how these avatars of the artificial intelligence are influencing society, specifically: politics.
With his provocative personality, a blue teddy bear named Waldo found himself in the middle of popularity while criticizing the political campaigns by using the entertainment to spotlight the manipulation of public opinion by digital media.
The scenario of Brighton’s experiment is a detailed exploration of promoting the idea of the role of politics and the impact that AI has on it. These two provoke the deal about representation in politics and public trust, both with the aim of helping and guiding the society.
What’s most important is that they both are transparent in creating a stronger idea of democratic values and ethical lines, while the world is strongly impacted by the black mirror.
Politics navigate the implications of power and public interest, and they should always aim for creating a better standard and opportunity for the citizens of one nation. Darrell M. West, in his book ‘The Future of Work. Robots, AI, and Automation’, talks about AI’s impact on democracy and governance, discussing the opportunities and the challenges that come with it, especially in the strengthening process of political transparency. We can use AI in politics in some different segments, starting by: campaign strategies, voter analytics, policy formulation, etc. But one more significant use of AI in political communication would be the help of data analysis, which also helps in targeting right and specific demographics easier.
Political communication is a sphere where perception is used to swing public opinion and shape policy. The Waldo Moment offers a direct portrayal of this communication. While the teddy bear found teasing a great mechanism to make questions and get answers metaphorically in The Waldo Moment, in real life there are also some other characters who are doing the same thing.
“Virtual Integrated Citizen” created by Victor Miller is another artificial candidate of the real world, who is running for mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming, with an unusual campaign promise: If elected, he will not be calling the shots—an AI bot will, as Vittoria Elliott wrote on Wired in an article ‘An AI Bot Is (Sort of) Running for Mayor in Wyoming’. Miller says the bot has better ideas—and a better grasp of the law—than many people currently serving in government.
“I realized that this entity is way smarter than me, and more importantly, way better than some of the outward-facing public servants I see,” he says. According to Miller, VIC will make the decisions and Miller will be its “meat puppet,” attending meetings, signing documents, and otherwise doing the corporeal job of running the city’’ – he adds for Wired magazine.
It takes responsibilities and sacrifices to be part of a political campaign and most importantly, to aim to do something differently, and on this side VIC’s chatbot functionality was discontinued. Despite the creator’s vision for VIC to bring transparency and efficiency to governance, the OpenAI company opposed the idea, citing violations of their technology usage policies.
The story of the virtual politicians continues with another example of a Belarusian candidate called Yas Gaspada, another figure, who was running in the elections of Belarusian parliament in February 2024, aiming for a position. A 35 year old from Minsk, Yas Gaspada is an AI chatbot built on top of Open AI’s GPT 4. Unlike AI Steve and VIC, Yas Gaspadar appears to have been made explicitly as a protest symbol. The chatbot was created by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya who leads the country’s anti-authoritarian opposition party.
“Frankly, he’s more real than any candidate the regime has to offer,” Tsikhanouskaya wrote on X. “And the best part? He cannot be arrested!”.
Ever since its airing, The Waldo Moment had a message to express, as a mirror of reality.
‘’It explores distrust and apathy towards politicians’’, as Ryan Lambie, a movie reviewer, added by summarizing the episode’s message in the phrase “self-absorption will be the death of politics”. Whilst Sam Parker, Culture Editor of Huffington Post UK, felt that the episode demonstrated “a desire for a more honest form of politics“.
As The Waldo Moment expresses criticism and entertainment, it also gives a reality check with its humor for addressing politics as a key element in our daily lives, even though the episode came out eleven years ago.
Through the lens of this episode we confront the proficiency of technology against the democratic validity. Our trust is the mechanism that politics use to work themselves. Positively or negatively.
Finally, as Waldo says:
“Let the people vote thumbs up, thumbs down, the majority wins. That’s a democracy”.
Sources:
- Grierson, J. (2024, June 10). “Brighton general election candidate aims to be UK’s first ‘AI MP’.” The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/10/brighton-general-election-candidate-uk-first-ai-mp-artificial-intelligence.
- Ccais. (2024, June 29). “AI Steve – independent AI candidate for Brighton Pavilion.” AI Steve. Retrieved from https://www.ai-steve.co.uk/.
- Elliott, V. (2024, June 12). “An AI bot is (Sort of) running for mayor in Wyoming.” WIRED. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/ai-bot-running-for-mayor-wyoming/.
- Rember, R. (2024, June 19). “The rise of virtual AI candidates in political elections.” elblog.pl. Retrieved from https://elblog.pl/2024/06/19/the-rise-of-virtual-ai-candidates-in-political-elections/.
- DeGeurin, M. (2024, June 12). “AI candidates are running for office.” Popular Science. Retrieved from https://www.popsci.com/technology/ai-running-for-office/.
- Lambie, R. (2013, February 26). “Black Mirror series 2 episode 3: The Waldo Moment spoiler-filled review.” Den of Geek. Retrieved September 21, 2019, from https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/black-mirror-series-2-episode-3-the-waldo-moment-spoiler-filled-review/.
- Parker, S. (2013, April 28). “Black Mirror: ‘The Waldo Moment’ (review).” HuffPost. Retrieved September 21, 2019, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/black-mirror-the-waldo-moment-review_b_3141925.
- Etemesi, P. (2022, June 19). “Black Mirror: The 8 Best Quotes.” ScreenRant. Retrieved from https://screenrant.com/black-mirror-the-8-best-quotes/.
* Genta Abdiji is a third year student of International Communication, Faculty of Languages, Cultures and Communication, South East European University
** The term ‘black mirror’ refers to a blank video screen *TV, Smartphone, Laptop, etc. Something cold and a reflection when we stare at it of what’s in us after technology stops functioning.
