Could an AI robot be the next Mayor of Orillia?

Ori, an AI robot created by David Caplan and Jordan Rossman from Startup Orillia, Ont. (mayor.startup.orillia.ca)

Artificial Intelligence is weaving its way into the fabric of many aspects of our society including politics.

A duo from Orillia is experimenting with the idea of a robot running for mayor.

David Caplan and Jordan Rossman are both from Startup Orillia, a group of around 40 like-minded businesspeople who meet up about once a month to talk AI, technology and business.

The two wondered, what if an AI robot ran for Mayor of Orillia? So they teamed up to create what they call a “thought experiment.” That’s when Ori was born - a digital robot who, while it won’t actually have its name on the ballot in October, might help those who will.

The guys created Ori as a valuable tool for municipal leaders in Orillia and possible other municipalities. They say it’s an early prototype but there could be the potential to grow and become better.

“We want to find out where is AI appropriate, where’s it not appropriate,” says Rossman.

The name comes from a mix of a play on both “Orillia” and “AI.”

Rossman actually encourages candidates to use Ori to help create their platforms, saying it can show politicians that there might be a better way to explain their position, potentially getting more buy-in from residents.

The pair say they don’t actually want Ori on the ballot.

Rossman gave an example of how Ori could be used as a political tool. He referred to a council meeting where staff were planning on writing up a report based on the meeting, but that would take two to four weeks.

“So people could wait for that, or they could just ask Ori,” Rossman says.

In this case, Ori could potentially ingest that information from the meeting and spew out a report within seconds.

The initiative was launched with a Chat-GPT-like platform where the public can engage with the robot and ask it questions.

It’s built based on the latest AI technology and brings together public information specifically tailored to Orillia. The system draws from the city’s civic data including council minutes, agendas and transcripts from meetings.

The team says the system has 10,000 individual documents of different sizes.

The public can ask it any question, Ori will do some digging and grab the most relevant information. Caplan says it then “brings it all together quickly for them and presents a reasonable answer backed by factual evidence.”

Rossman says Ori has one mission.

“To take the information you have available to you and make the best decision for the people of Orillia,” he says.

Rossman and Caplan also assure the public the robot has no political bias based on their personal political views and isn’t aligned with any political party.

They say Ori could have a liberal perspective on one issue and a conservative perspective on another.

“This is not about us advancing any sort of political agenda,” says Rossman. “In order for this to work, Ori has to be completely impartial.”

The Instagram page was built as a persona for Ori and to get the public’s attention, while the platform people can use to engage with Ori could potentially assist potential candidates in the upcoming election.

“The value is in the technology - synthesizing information from a whole bunch of facts and bringing it together and the person can do what they want with the information and go from there,” says Caplan.

Another big part of Ori, Rossman says, is transparency.

“Ori has a mandate to be transparent in all positions and in all answers. And if there isn’t a good answer, Ori will tell you,” he says.

Even though the robot can be efficient in many ways, the guys admit it comes with its flaws.

While it does have thousands of documents to draw from, it is limited in the amount of information it can use.

Ori has received mostly positive feedback from residents, according to the guys.

“I think people would like a disruption in the political process,” says Rossman.

“We don’t know where it’s going to go but we’re excited about the possibilities,” says Caplan.