Civox, led by Ilya Mouzykantskii and Adam Reis, uses over 20 different AI models, some proprietary and some open-source, to power Ashley. Despite the potential downsides, the company has no plans to take venture capital funding which might prioritize profits over ethics. The use of AI in this way is currently unregulated, with no rules directly applying to Civox's activity, which does not qualify as robocalling under Federal Trade Commission regulations.
Key takeaways:
- An AI campaign volunteer named Ashley is being used to call thousands of Pennsylvania voters on behalf of Democrat Shamaine Daniels, marking a new era of political campaigning where technology is used to engage with voters.
- Ashley, developed by Civox, can analyze voters' profiles to tailor conversations around their key issues, recall all of Daniels' positions, and conduct conversations in over 20 languages.
- Civox's CEO, Ilya Mouzykantskii, plans to scale up the operation to make tens of thousands of calls a day by the end of the year, and anticipates a significant role for this technology in the 2024 election.
- There are few legal regulations for this use of AI in political campaigning. Federal Trade Commission regulations ban telemarketers from making robocalls to people on the Do Not Call Registry, but this does not apply to political calls or Civox's personalized messages.