Japanese political party to appoint AI leader

A budding Japanese political party said on Tuesday it will appoint an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered leader after the founding leader resigned following a disastrous election result.

The party, called Path to Rebirth, was formed in January this year by Shinji Ishimaru, a former mayor of a small town in western Japan. The party has no set policies and its members can set their own agenda.

Ishimaru unexpectedly came second in the 2024 Tokyo gubernatorial election thanks to a successful online campaign. But he left the party after failing to win a seat in this year’s upper house election.

Koki Okumura, who introduced himself as the party’s new leader’s assistant, told reporters that the new leader would be AI.

The 25-year-old PhD student at Kyoto University said it was not yet decided when and how AI would be implemented. For now, he would remain the party’s leader on paper.

Okumura said the AI ​​would not determine the political actions of party members, but rather would play a role in decisions such as resource allocation—such as how much support each member receives.

He recently succeeded Ishimaru after winning an internal party contest. But despite attracting media attention, Path to Rebirth has yet to win a seat. All 42 of the party’s candidates lost in the Tokyo Assembly election in June, and 10 candidates in the upper house election in July also lost.