Talk:Virtual politician
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Wiki Education assignment: Introduction to Political Communication
[edit]
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 2 January 2026 and 18 March 2026. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Colorado Student 1 (article contribs).
— Assignment last updated by Colorado Student 1 (talk) 22:43, 21 January 2026 (UTC)
SAM project attribution
[edit] | The user below has a request that an edit be made to Virtual politician. That user has an actual or apparent conflict of interest. Summary of request: Replace the single-creator attribution for SAM with the documented collaborative attribution The requested edits backlog is very high. Please be extremely patient. There are currently 663 requests waiting for review.Please read the instructions for the parameters used by this template for accepting and declining them, and review the request below and make the edit if it is well sourced, neutral, and follows other Wikipedia guidelines and policies. |
I have a conflict of interest here because I am Walter Langelaar and was involved in the SAM project, so I am requesting this correction rather than editing the article directly.
In the SAM section, the article currently says:
"SAM was created by New Zealand developer Nick Gerritsen, and designed to represent the views and wants of people in New Zealand."
Could an uninvolved editor please replace the creator attribution with:
"SAM was developed by a Wellington-based technology group involving entrepreneur Nick Gerritsen, Victoria University of Wellington researcher Walter Langelaar, and software company Touchtech. Contemporary reporting described Gerritsen as the group's spokesperson, Langelaar as conducting the research phase, and Touchtech as helping to develop the platform."
The existing following material about SAM's purpose, social-media interaction and intended 2020 election can remain.
Reason: the present wording gives sole creator attribution to Gerritsen. Contemporary independent reporting describes SAM as a group project. Idealog identifies Gerritsen as the group's spokesperson, Langelaar as conducting its research phase, and Touchtech as assisting development. FutureFive independently reports the same division of roles. A 2019 scholarly article on algorithmic democracy identifies the Wellington group behind SAM as Langelaar, Gerritsen and Touchtech, and describes Gerritsen as one of SAM's creators rather than its sole creator.
Sources:
- Ben Mack, "Idealog Podcast: Meet SAM, the AI politician", Idealog, 19 January 2018:
https://idealog.co.nz/tech/2018/01/idealog-podcast-meet-sam-ai-politician
- Jacques-Pierre Dumas, "Wellington technology group create an AI politician", FutureFive, 21 November 2017:
https://futurefive.co.nz/story/wellington-based-technology-group-create-ai-politician
- Patrici Calvo, "Democracia algorítmica: consideraciones éticas sobre la dataficación de la esfera pública", Revista del CLAD Reforma y Democracia, no. 74, 2019, pp. 5–30, DOI 10.69733/clad.ryd.n74.a181:
https://revista.clad.org/ryd/en/article/view/181
This is not a request to remove or diminish Nick Gerritsen's role. It is intended to replace the current sole-creator attribution with the collaborative attribution described by the available sources.