Democracy’s New Best Friend - Parker For People

Te Whanganui-a-tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand

A Wellington-based technology group is launching an innovative solution to address the erosion of trust in politicians and the spread of disinformation. Leveraging the rapid advancements in AI, they are introducing Parker, the AI politician.

"It all began by asking whether an AI politician could provide facts rather than push a party line," explains the group's spokesperson, Nick Gerritsen. "Parker is proving that it can deliver comprehensive, contextually adaptive policies for complex challenges like climate change."

Parker is trained to draw on diverse data sources and highlight peer-reviewed literature, prioritising solutions that serve the common good. "In this way, we help people navigate complex problems and arrive at solutions that benefit many, rather than serving the interests of a powerful few," Gerritsen adds.

“We believe that everyone deserves a voice and that we all need to re-learn just how to have a conversation.”

Parker seamlessly scales its focus from hyper-local issues to global challenges. "Our current political system is an inheritance from a time when it was expensive and difficult to bring people together for democratic decision-making," says Gerritsen. "It is not adapting well to the increasingly complex information landscape and new media environment. People are losing trust and turning to social media and their peers for information and sense-making."

"People deserve better information, decision-making processes and outcomes. AI, while not perfect, is vastly more reliable and informed than the average politician. We are continually improving Parker to be more responsive, culturally sensitive, adaptive, and bias-aware. You can't tune a real politician like this!"

Parker is the maturation of the pilot program "SAM – the Virtual Politician," launched in 2017 out of the Wellington CITY.AI chapter, part of a global network showcasing AI capabilities and talent. The research project evaluated whether people would engage with a virtual politician, and it received a

huge international interest - featured in over 85 articles on news sites around the world from Nikkei, The NASDAQ Stock Market, NPR, Italian Vogue Magazine to name a few.

Gerritsen, who is involved in a number of technology projects, highlights the current political system's reliance on politicians staying on top of all major issues, being well-informed, and making good decisions. "We are living through a polycrisis—water, climate, biodiversity, security, and disinformation. We need better outcomes, and our current politicians are proving they are vastly out of touch with what people want," he says.

Parker allows for continuous conversation, enabling users to delve deeply into issues and understand their interconnectedness and complexity. Megan Salole, co-founder of ActionStation—Aotearoa New Zealand’s people-powered change mobilisation platform—is also on the team. "I have always been passionate about how technology can enable greater people power and democratic participation. My hope is that Parker will give the 'silent majority' a voice. To truly serve diverse communities at the margins, the AI must be tuned to be sensitive to their cultural needs and aspirations. That is what I am committed to supporting Parker to achieve."

The AI Parker was developed in-house by a talented team based in Wellington. Andrew Smith, the Executive Director of Parker Politics and a recent member of the AI Forum NZ's executive council, says, 'This has been an exciting opportunity to create software that harnesses our collective intelligence—AI—for the benefit of our communities.'"

"The project is continuing to raise funding to expand operations and explore all potential applications," says Gerritsen.

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