Draft:Andrew Gray

Andrew Philip Gray (born 1979) is a British lawyer, businessman, and political activist. In June 2023, he became the world’s first political candidate to use a form of artificial intelligence to set his manifesto pledges, when standing as an independent candidate in the July 2023 Selby and Ainsty by-election.

‘AI-powered’ election campaign
In June 2023, Gray announced he would be running as a candidate in the Selby and Ainsty by-election, stating an intention to be the first UK Member of Parliament to be “powered by AI”.

The basis of this claim was Gray’s widely reported    use of an AI tool called Polis, “a real-time system for gathering, analyzing and understanding what large groups of people think in their own words, enabled by advanced statistics and machine learning.”

At the time of Gray’s campaign, Polis had already been used within a political context, most notably by the Taiwanese government to inform policy agendas. Gray himself had been using the system since January 2022 to assist with the resolution of issues local to Harrogate, including controversial plans to expand Harrogate Spring Water’s bottling plant into local woodland.

However, Gray’s July 2023 election campaign is the first recorded instance of a political candidate using an AI-powered system to set their manifesto.

During the campaign, the system received between 7,500 and 8,000 votes “cast by 275 people in 46 Polis discussion groups.”

The results of these discussions were published by the Daily Mail as “Britain’s First AI Manifesto”.

Gray’s campaign was ultimately unsuccessful. Labour Party candidate Keir Mather won the seat with a 46% share of the vote.

Gray promised to turn over the data gathered through the Polis system to the victorious candidate.

Reactions to the campaign
The Daily Star reported that the campaign’s premise “appeared to divide opinions”, noting that comments under an announcement post made by Gray on his LinkedIn profile showed “both praise and criticism.”

Keegan McBride of the Oxford Internet Institute dismissed Gray’s campaign as part of a prevalent “techno-utopian type view on democracy”, adding that “democracy isn’t going to be fixed by a new technology or a new digital system or artificial intelligence or anything like that, because it’s not a technological problem. It’s a sociological one.”

In an interview with Fox News, Alan Mendoza, co-founder and executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, stated: “Andrew Gray had a brave idea, but having finished 11th out of 13 candidates and with just 99 votes, I wouldn’t expect mainstream politicians to rush to copy his tactics just yet”. But Mendoza believed that artificial intelligence would have an impact on future political campaigns, adding: “We may not have to wait that long for the first AI-inspired victorious candidate, but they will undoubtedly emerge from one of the major parties, with all the electoral advantages they already possess."

Other activism
In 2022, Gray brought a discrimination claim under the Equality Act 2010 against Nuffield Health, seeking the implementation of lower gym fees for people with disabilities. As a result of the claim, Nuffield announced they would establish an independent committee to assess applications by people with disabilities for reduced rates.

In October 2021, Gray joined a campaign to remove Philip Allott from his role as North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, following comments made by Allott in relation to the murder of Sarah Everard. Allott resigned on 14 October 2021.

Personal life
Gray is a Quaker. Truth Legal, a law firm founded by Gray in 2012, is listed as a Quaker business.