Meet the tech optimists who believe AI can transform politics for the better
Campaign Lab runs regular hack days to work on new campaigning tools.
Concern about artificial intelligence wrecking elections and threatening democracy has reached fever pitch.
"While this technology does pose some important risks in terms of disinformation, it also offers some significant opportunities for campaigns, which we can't ignore," Hannah O'Rourke, co-founder of Campaign Lab, a left-leaning network of tech volunteers, says.
"Like all technology, what matters is how AI is actually implemented."Its impact will be felt in the way campaigners actually use it.
Among other things, Campaign Lab runs training courses for Labour and Liberal Democrat campaigners on how to use ChatGPT to create the first draft of election leaflets.
AI is already embedded in everyday programs, from Microsoft Outlook to Adobe Photoshop, Ms O'Rourke says, so why not use it in a responsible way to free up time for more face-to-face campaigning?
Conservative-supporting AI expert Joe Reeve is another young political campaigner convinced the new technology can transform things for the better.
In 2020, Mr Reeve founded Tory Techs, partly as a right-wing response to Campaign Lab.The group has run programming sessions and explored how to use AI to hone Tory campaign messages but, Mr Reeve says, it now "Mostly focuses on speaking with MPs in more private and safe spaces to help coach politicians on what AI means and how it can be a positive force".
Mr Gray's campaign was based on Polis, an AI-powered tool that allows groups with widely different opinions to reach a consensus through votes and discussion.
Joe Twyman, co-founder of polling company Deltapoll, says sophisticated "Regression" polls - of the kind YouGov produced recently predicting a Labour general election landslide - have been made possible only by AI. The average regression poll has between 6,000 and 10,000 respondents, according to the British Polling Council.