(Politico) In one of the zanier twists of this campaign season, two Virginia congressional candidates will face off tonight, in a virtual debate, against an AI bot.
The candidates are Bentley Hensel and David Kennedy, both running for Virginia’s 8th district — both independents, and both expected to lose.
The bot is based on Rep. Don Beyer, the Democratic incumbent, heavily favored to win, who decided not to show up when the True Representation Movement and the Black Alumni National Alliance invited him to the only debate in his district.
Hensel, one of the candidates, is also the software engineer who built the bot. He told DFD he developed it without Beyer’s permission out of frustration that the lawmaker appeared to be sitting out campaign events. “Sadly, [it’s] not that unusual for an incumbent congressperson in a safe seat,” he said in an interview.
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