HYDERABAD: At a time when most candidates are busy making public appearances to get some face time with their electors, a Silicon Valley-bred engineer has chosen to sit behind closed doors, instead, to connect with his voters.
His tool: Artificial Intelligence. Meet Siddhartha Chakravarthy the 36-year-old corporate employee-turned-entrepreneur who has now taken on the role of politician. He filed his nomination as an independent from Jubilee Hills, armed with the torch as symbol.
When TOI caught up with him on Friday, Siddhartha showed no sign of stress, given the polls are only a fortnight away. But then, he knows exactly, what he is aiming for. “I am not expecting to be able to reach lakhs of people. Even if I can engage a few thousand of them through AI, my job is done,” said the founder of Statwig that provides digital supply chain solutions. Explaining how his tech-driven campaign is both more effective and cost efficient, when compared to his opponents, he added: “My AI assistant Vako has the capacity to interact with two lakh users simultaneously. And, it will hardly cost me 50 paise to interact with a person.”
Here’s how it will work. “All a voter has to do is scan a QR code, which will take them to my website and chatbot. Just by asking simple questions, voters will be able to know anything and everything about me and what I plan to achieve by contesting in elections. This can be done through WhatsApp and people do not need to download any app,” the candidate contesting from Jubilee Hills said going on to give a live demonstration.
When TOI scanned the code the virtual assistant welcomed it with a text: “Hello! I'm Vako.AI, representing Sid Chakravarthy, an aspirational leader and founder of Statwig. How can I assist you today?”
Explaining that the AI assistant even assists in addressing various issues, Siddhartha added: “When the AI fails to address an issue, human intervention will happen.”
He has a small team of six people who are currently working for him remotely. He is planning to launch his official AI campaign this weekend and initially use digital advertisements and pamphlets to spread to the word. “By using AI, I want to bring transparency and accountability into politics and disrupt how politicians are currently working and operating,” he said stressing how barring politics, the tech has invaded all other sectors.
“Another aim is to campaign within the budget sanctioned by the election commission,” said Siddhartha who did his masters in telecommunication from University of Maryland. He quit his high life in the Bay Area four years ago and returned to his home city to start his venture.
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