[Royal] Media Opportunity

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

The fact of our own existence combined with the novelty might well get some eyeballs.  The vast majority of people aren't aware of Talossa, so that's an angle that will get people interested, a la "A small country located entirely within the city of Milwaukee has persisted in claiming independence since 1979... and now they're also claiming to be the first country to appoint an artificial intelligence as a government minister."

There are a lot of valid concerns, but surely it's something worth exploring as we hear them out?  I mean, it's a risk, but sometimes you need to take some risks.  Reunision was a risk, too, and that was definitely a great choice.

[Iac Marscheir]

If the government tries to install a chatbot as a government official, I'll find a way to file suit, and if that doesn't fix the problem (because, yes, AI is a problem, not a solution), I'll renounce my citizenship, likely for good if there actually is any publicity.

These are the stakes, and I know they are low. I know Talossa would quickly move on without me. But that's integrity: Doing the right thing when you know nobody cares.

[Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP]

The fact of our own existence combined with the novelty might well get some eyeballs.

I know for a fact that there are a lot of micronations that adopted a cryptocurrecy during the big crypto hype. How many articles did you see talking about them? I haven't seen a single one. I have no reason to believe that Talossa would fare any better publicitywise with AI.

[Barclamïu da Miéletz]

If the government tries to install a chatbot as a government official, I'll find a way to file suit, and if that doesn't fix the problem (because, yes, AI is a problem, not a solution), I'll renounce my citizenship, likely for good if there actually is any publicity.

These are the stakes, and I know they are low. I know Talossa would quickly move on without me. But that's integrity: Doing the right thing when you know nobody cares.

Like I've said here, I will do the same.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I hope that the Government does the responsible thing and explores the idea, privately, even if it doesn't work out as a good idea.

[King Txec]

Folks, let's take a breath here and relax. No one is saying we will do anything at all. What we are doing is the responsible thing and presenting to the kingdom something that was brought to us to consider. Threats of renunciation are not helpful when no one is being forced to do anything. I felt it was my duty as your king to bring to your attention something that could be a benefit and could be a not so good thing.

For starters, we do know the name of the AI company, but the media company that approached us asked to avoid using its name publicly to avoid what they termed "spiking the press" in advance of any possible announcements. There is nothing nefarious there.

I firmly believe I would have been shirking my duties if I had simply ignored this possibility because sometimes ideas that seem wacky or out of left field can spark creative approaches. Maybe we don't use their idea but it gets someone thinking of another new or novel thing that will keep making Talossa great! Love the idea or leave it behind, it is up to the kingdom. I have no personal stake in the matter. Let's have a reasonable discussion and not throw out fear before we even have all the facts.

-Txec R

[Munditenens Tresplet]

I think it is worthwhile to hear more information. I doubt the AI minister will have any powers that couldn't otherwise be controlled or monitored—probably would lack any actual powers. As a publicity stunt, it would be interesting. I don't think we should outright reject anyone that reaches out or may wish to work with the Kingdom. (Of course, the discourse over whether we should have an AI minister would, itself, be notable.)

[Iac Marscheir]

@King Txec
We do have all the facts, and the fact is, we don't need AI here. I'm not making idle threats over petty fears. I sincerely believe—and I have the past 10 years of cycles of tech-hype, FOMO and starry eyes followed by reality checks to back me up on this—that taking this "opportunity" would at the very least be a massive mistake, and at the worst, possibly become a catalyst for something that destroys the nation completely.

We're nothing but press-piggies to them, and you're letting yourself be used.

[Munditenens Tresplet]

I for one think the King should always do what he is doing here: Presenting an offer to the citizenry and the government in the name of transparency, and not making any decisions on behalf of the Kingdom as a single individual.

[Glüc]

I for one think the King should always do what he is doing here: Presenting an offer to the citizenry and the government in the name of transparency, and not making any decisions on behalf of the Kingdom as a single individual.

Agreed. I don't blame His Majesty for bringing this up, even though I do hope the answer of citizenry and government is a resounding "no thanks, leave us alone please".

[Glüc]

I was assured that we would not have anything to do on our end, except allowing their AI to interact.

And subvert our democratic processes by making a chatbot minister presumably.

Anyway, I don't want to interact with AI. Interacting with fellow citizens is more than enough for me, because I value you all as human beings. (At least I assume you all are. To be fair the only one I'm 100% certain of is Lüc :p ) What is the main purpose of AI if not to copy our humanity and creativity and sell it to the highest bidder?

[Glüc]

I doubt the AI minister will have any powers that couldn't otherwise be controlled or monitored—probably would lack any actual powers.

Well if it didn't have any actual responsibilities, it wouldn't really be a minister would it?


Can't we just do the one where we change our laws to have someone marry the statute of liberty? At least that proposal was somewhat funny.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I hope that the Government does the responsible thing and explores the idea, privately, even if it doesn't work out as a good idea.

The Government has already explored the idea privately. Why do you think it's taken a month to go public, lol :D

I, personally, am vehemently opposed to the idea, for reasons I'll explore in another post, but that was not a Cabinet consensus. So after a lot of discussion, and posting questions to these people, we decided to advise His Maj to make the proposal public.

[Munditenens Tresplet]

I doubt the AI minister will have any powers that couldn't otherwise be controlled or monitored—probably would lack any actual powers.

Well if it didn't have any actual responsibilities, it wouldn't really be a minister would it?

Without yet hearing more about the proposal, so far, that seems to be the point.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I hope that the Government does the responsible thing and explores the idea, privately, even if it doesn't work out as a good idea.

The Government has already explored the idea privately. Why do you think it's taken a month to go public, lol :D

I, personally, am vehemently opposed to the idea, for reasons I'll explore in another post, but that was not a Cabinet consensus. So after a lot of discussion, and posting questions to these people, we decided to advise His Maj to make the proposal public.

Excellent! I'm glad that you guys did your due diligence and explored the idea. Okay, so what other details can you share then, from that process? I think that would help a lot of people know how to react to this news.

[Danihel Txechescu]

I doubt the AI minister will have any powers that couldn't otherwise be controlled or monitored—probably would lack any actual powers.

Well if it didn't have any actual responsibilities, it wouldn't really be a minister would it?

Without yet hearing more about the proposal, so far, that seems to be the point.

More like an AI Advisor.

If that doesn't work out, we can probably reprogram it to be the court's jester.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

so what other details can you share then, from that process?

Well, we created a list of questions from this company and got a list of answers in return - @Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be was the point man on this, and I'll ask Cabinet for permission to republish those.

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

so what other details can you share then, from that process?

Well, we created a list of questions from this company and got a list of answers in return - @Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be was the point man on this, and I'll ask Cabinet for permission to republish those.

Alrght, so:

• What degree of control would we retain over this AI model, and what would be controlled by (Company)? For that matter, what amount of "human control" is still necessary/possible?
  
  • In actual practice (not that we will communicate this as part of the story), it is likely to be as simple as (Company) granting you free access to its Premium platform, and building a bespoke agent/agents (something they can do very quickly and easily, since it's their core service) on your behalf, to match the needs of the story. Think of each agent as very sophisticated and ultra-tailored version of Chat-GPT, which is programmed to focus on a specific task or tasks. You can do nothing with them, or put them to work, as you wish.
• They aren't seeking any payment from us, but would they require anything else? What sort of paperwork (especially legal paperwork) is involved? We would almost certainly have to sign some sort of contract.
  
  • Contracts, especially legal, certainly won't be necessary.
• Can they give us more information on how this would be marketed?
  
  • In terms of how we'll market the story, please see my explanation below of how we'll take this to press. We will have (Company) post secured articles from their social media channels, too.
• Why a Cabinet post? Why not something simpler at first, like citizenship in general?
  
  • A Cabinet post will be necessary to grab our contacts' attention, as a truly novel and fun innovation. We know how to craft these things to capture the interest of top-tier media. Of course, as mentioned, we wouldn't communicate anything without your blessing.
• What sort of data does this model collect?
  
  • No more data is collected than for any of (Company)'s many thousands of corporate customers (I assume a user email address and anything else you'd expect of a SaaS).

An explanation of the marketing process they mentioned mentioned above:

Our team would manage the full process - drafting written materials for press, creating the AI workforce, and media placement. All we would need from your side is approval of press materials before they are shared with journalists, a written quote (which we can draft for you if helpful), and potentially being available for interview by an interested journalist. Otherwise, we'd keep the ask on you to an absolute minimum.

[Tric’hard Lenxheir]

Will things such as my real name, email address, home address be available to this "AI" or the company controlling it?

[Barclamïu da Miéletz]

Will things such as my real name, email address, home address be available to this "AI" or the company controlling it?

That's also my personal concern.