Rep. Dean Phillips, the Minnesota Democrat running a long-shot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, wants you to know he’s really into artificial intelligence. At a Thursday campaign event in New Hampshire with former tech executive and failed presidential candidate Andrew Yang, Phillips declared, “I will be the first AI president in American history!” Earlier in the week, he rolled out a chatbot called Dean.Bot that answers questions from voters using AI technology and even mimics his voice — one of the first known instances of an American political campaign using AI. And he’s cautioning voters against government overregulation of AI, arguing that “if you do not understand it, all you want to do is regulate it.”
AI is a relatively new hobbyhorse for Phillips. As New York Magazine reports, Phillips has never shown substantial interest in the issue in Congress nor did he discuss it during an interview announcing his campaign in October. Rather, his heightened interest in the subject — and his advocacy for protecting the AI sector from excessive red tape — appears to have emerged shortly after he started making friends with AI magnates and other tech moguls late last year. Phillips says he talks on the phone to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose former chief of staff co-founded the main super PAC backing Phillips. That super PAC has received millions from well-heeled techies in Silicon Valley.
A lot of his ideas are better suited for the GOP than for a Democrat who claims to be best positioned to bring “change” to Washington.
Phillips’ embrace of AI underscores the strange, rudderless nature of his campaign. The best reason for a quixotic White House run is to lobby for a big, important idea or distinct ideology. Even if a campaign is doomed, with smart messaging a gadfly candidate can help build movement energy around a policy idea. (Think: former Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s laser focus on climate change in the 2020 Democratic…
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