Mayoral candidate vows to let VIC, an AI bot, run Wyoming’s capital city; The Washington Post, August 19, 2024

Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff

 and 

Jenna Sampson

 , The Washington Post; Mayoral candidate vows to let VIC, an AI bot, run Wyoming’s capital city

"Miller made this pitch at a county library in Wyoming’s capital on a recent summer Friday, with a few friends and family filling otherwise empty rows of chairs. Before the sparse audience, he vowed to run the city of Cheyenne exclusively with an AI bot he calls “VIC” for “Virtual Integrated Citizen.”

AI experts say the pledge is a first for U.S. campaigns and marks a new front in the rapid emergence of the technology. Its implications have stoked alarm among officials and even tech companies...

The day before, Miller had scrambled to get VIC working after OpenAI,the technology company behind generative-AI tools like ChatGPT, shut down his account, citing policies against using its products for campaigning. Miller quickly made a second ChatGPT bot, allowing him to hold the meet-and-greet almost exactly as planned.

It was just the latest example of Miller’s skirting efforts against his campaign by the company that makes the AI technology and the regulatory authorities that oversee elections...

“While OpenAI may have certain policies against using its model for campaigning, other companies do not, so it makes shutting down the campaign nearly impossible.”"

Florida joins conservative states severing ties with national library group; Politico, October 31, 2023

ANDREW ATTERBURY , Politico; Florida joins conservative states severing ties with national library group

"Florida is among the latest conservative-leaning states to sever connections with the nation’s oldest library organization after the nonprofit became embroiled in the ongoing culture war over what books should be available to students.

The agency in charge of Florida’s public libraries issued a new rule in October forbidding any grant activities tied to the American Library Association, a 150-year-old organization that aids thousands of libraries across the country with training and funding.

The move by the DeSantis administration puts Florida in line with a cadre of Republican states and lawmakers leveling scrutiny on ALA, labeling the group as “toxic” and a “conduit” for exposing children to pornography — claims refuted by the organization and its supporters.

Conservatives in a growing number of states, including Alabama, Wyoming, Missouri, Texas and now Florida, have severed affiliations with the ALA, in part over the group choosing a new president, Emily Drabinski, who in 2022 tweeted that she’s a “Marxist.”...

How the rule will affect local libraries is currently unclear. Libraries pay for ALA memberships that grant access to benefits such as discounts on professional development and education products."