Jason Palmer, a self-proclaimed ‘long-shot candidate’ vying for the presidency, uses AI generated texts, emails and an avatar to communicate with voters
The little-known presidential candidate who beat President Biden in American Samoa’s Democratic caucus earlier this week says artificial intelligence played a big role in his campaign strategy.
Jason Palmer, an impact investor and venture capitalist who entered the race in November, has leveraged generative AI to communicate with voters via SMS text and email, and answer specific questions about his background and policy. Additionally, Palmer’s campaign website has an avatar, PalmerAI, that answers questions with the candidate’s voice and likeness.
Palmer himself never set foot on the tiny territory of islands in the South Pacific during the campaign, conducting his entire bid virtually. He credits his 11-vote victory to an exceptional local team and its grassroots effort, but also said his use of AI made a meaningful difference.
“I believe I won in part because I’m very adept at technology,” he said. “I do think the people feel like I’ve been there because I did these virtual meetings, and I engaged with them using AI.”
Palmer has spent his career as a technology entrepreneur, impact investor and board member, serving most recently as a general partner at venture-capital firm New Markets Venture Partners.
Text and email outreach to voters is nothing new for candidates, but in Palmer’s case, the AI can generate specific responses to voter questions and engage with them on a personal level without much human assistance—a huge benefit for a lean campaign with only five full-time staffers.
Palmer spent less than $5,000 on the American Samoa campaign. “If I had millions of dollars to market to Colorado or Vermont, who knows I might have been more competitive in those states,” he said.
All told, his campaign has raised $50,000, with a goal to raise $100,000 by the end of March, and he has contributed $500,000 of his own funds.
Generative AI has emerged as a hot issue during the current election cycle, although not necessarily as a tool for educating voters and outreach.
In January, a deepfake of President Biden’s voice called thousands of voters in New Hampshire, discouraging them from voting in the primary. Shortly after, the Federal Communications Commission banned automated calls with AI-generated voices.
Palmer said he wanted to be very upfront with voters about the fact that they were interacting with an AI model. Emails that are sent by the campaign typically begin, “My name is Jason Palmer AI and I work for Palmer for President,” and end with “This AI-powered system can respond to you!”
Conversica Chief Executive Jim Kaskade, who worked with Palmer to develop the conversational AI, said the model has strict guardrails. Unlike some public large language models that can repeat information they have gleaned from across the internet, Kaskade’s team defined what the Palmer model can and can’t say. In just two weeks, the AI has reached 44,000 voter prospects, Kaskade said.
His online avatar is similarly constrained, only drawing on a corpus of information that contains his policies, things he has stated publicly, his professional history, or topics related to his campaign and the presidential election, said Gary Lue, chief digital officer and CIO of AI company CreatorUp which developed the experience.
Palmer said the avatar cost less than $25,000 to create. He spent time in a recording studio reading out different speeches to train the AI on his voice. He said he could have also spent more time tracking detailed visuals of his face that would have created a better version, but instead just chose to feed it with a basic photo and let the technology animate the rest.
Palmer added that he is aware of concerns and risks around the use of AI, especially in sensitive areas such as the presidential election, but remains bullish on the technology.
“AI can be used as a force for good or it can be used as a force for bad and we need to update our laws to clearly distinguish between those two. I’m in favor of using technology to improve the world. And we shouldn’t stop using technology just because 10% of people are using it for bad things,” he said.
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