Japan’s AI experiment: Political party hands leadership to penguin chatbot

The Path to Rebirth party, known locally as Saise no Michi, was founded in January and ran 42 candidates in Tokyo’s assembly elections in June, all of whom lost. Its candidates also failed to secure seats in July’s Upper House elections.

Those defeats prompted the party’s founder, Shinji Ishimaru, a former mayor of a small city in western Japan, to resign. His replacement, Koki Okumura, a 25-year-old doctoral student specializing in artificial intelligence at Kyoto University, has now taken an unusual step: ceding the party’s leadership role to an AI system.

The chatbot, represented by a cartoon penguin, will be tasked with handling clerical functions such as allocating party resources. 

“The party will entrust decision-making to AI.” the Kyoto University student announced in a press conference. “Legally, the representative must be a natural person, so formally, a human serves as the representative.”

Though Path to Rebirth is a small party, its move reflects a growing willingness worldwide to hand decision-making power — or at least decision-support roles — to algorithms.

In September, Albania announced what it called the world’s first AI-generated “minister,” tasked with monitoring public procurement and combating corruption.

The Path to Rebirth party sees its experiment as a way to make politics more inclusive. Its website declares a belief that anyone interested in politics should have a chance to participate.

“I believe it has the potential to achieve things with greater precision than humans. This approach allows us to carefully consider voices that are often overlooked by humans, potentially creating a more inclusive and humane environment for political participation,” Okumura told CNN. 

Some dismiss the move as a publicity stunt, while others warn that using AI in governance raises serious questions about accountability and public trust. This, especially after recent controversies in the West, where chatbots have been implicated in harmful advice to vulnerable users.