(NewsNation) — A mayoral candidate is vowing to let an artificial intelligence chatbot make all governing decisions if he’s elected to lead Wyoming’s capital city, but the state’s top election official says that proposal violates the law.

Victor Miller, who is seeking the Cheyenne mayor’s office, said Wednesday on NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live” he plans to fully cede decision-making to a customized AI bot he dubbed “Vic” if voters choose him.

“It’s going to be taking in the supporting documents, taking in what it knows about Cheyenne and systems here, the concerns, and it’s going to make a vote yes or no,” Miller explained. “And it’s going to do that based on intelligence and data. And I’m going to go ahead and pull the lever for it.”

But Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray said Wednesday on NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” that Miller’s candidacy violates state law because AI is ineligible to hold office.

Gray said the Cheyenne town clerk who certified Miller’s candidacy to the county clerk acted improperly. Gray’s office is exploring further action, though it doesn’t directly oversee municipal elections.

“Wyoming state law is very clear that an AI bot is not eligible to be a candidate for office,” Gray said. Only “qualified electors” who are state residents and U.S. citizens can run, he said.

Miller’s application also had deficiencies, Gray said, such as failing to list his full name, as required.

Miller insisted he has confidence the advanced AI model he’s utilizing can adequately govern.

“The best intelligence that we’ve extracted so far is OpenAI’s Chat GPT 4.0, and that’s what I’m using here,” Miller said. “There’s very minimal mistakes.”

Gray pushed back against arguments that AI could make better decisions than human elected officials, calling it “our worst nightmare becoming true.” He advocated for electing “conservative human beings” to uphold founding principles.

Miller has said openly his campaign revolves around AI decision-making: “AI has helped me personally such as helping me with my resume.”

The unorthodox campaign has drawn mixed reactions in Cheyenne so far, Miller acknowledged, but he believes he can persuade skeptical residents to go along with ceding power to artificial intelligence.

Gray believes similar AI candidate stunts could arise elsewhere, calling it “a very troubling trend in our nation.”

Wyoming and Utah have become the first states to challenge in federal court an obscure rule touted by the Bureau of Land Management that marks a major shift in how 245 million acres of public lands are managed in the United States.

The rule was designed by BLM to strike a balance between conservation and extractive mining for natural resources like coal, gold, silver, nickel and uranium, all of which are big undertakings in the Cowboy State.

However, the rule effectively gives the BLM power to kill off mining projects before they even get off the drawing board.

The rule provides BLM with leverage to allow for more complete consideration of land uses, including conservation uses or restoration projects, especially for culturally rich landscapes and the ability to keep intact wildlife migration corridors, such for as pronghorn, in parts of central Wyoming’s Red Desert.

The two states announced Wednesday that they have jointly filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah in Salt Lake City challenging the BLM’s final “public lands rule.”

The BLM’s final rule was announced April 18.

‘Abomination Of A Rule’

The lawsuit claims that the rule isn’t needed, and that the preferred path to preserve public lands would have been the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which gives states like Wyoming and Utah a shot at mining proposals.

Instead, the states wrote in their lawsuit, the rule represents a fundamental “change in how the agency will carry out its mission moving forward,”

Despite the objections of several states, BLM sidestepped NEPA requirements and unreasonably concluded that no “extraordinary circumstances” would ever warrant a NEPA review, thus bypassing the federal law completely, according to the lawsuit.

“Ever since this abomination of a rule raised its ugly head, demonstrating the Biden administration’s disregard for the law, I have fought it tooth and nail,” said Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon in a statement.

Wyoming has a lot at stake with the BLM’s approach to managing public lands and could see a further clamping down on mining should the public lands rule tilt in favor of keeping land untouched for conservation purposes instead of being mined and later reclaimed under federal mining rules.

Overall, the BLM manages about 18.4 million acres of public lands and 42.9 million acres of federal land with mineral deposits in the state of Wyoming.

“This legal challenge ensures that this administration is called out for sidestepping the bedrock federal statutes which guide public land management by attempting to eliminate multiple use through a corrupted definition of conservation, and for doing so with impunity,” Gordon said. “I look forward to our day in court and putting the BLM back on the right path.”

A draft of the BLM’s public lands rule, formally known as the “Conservation and Landscape Health” rule, was unveiled for public comment initially April 3, 2023.

Gordon testified in opposition to the draft rule before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources in Washington, D.C., on June 15, 2023, and challenged the direction of the rule’s new powers in comments filed with BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning nearly a year ago.

As one of only 30 wrestlers to win a State Championship 4 times in their careers, Green River’s Kale Knezovich will go down as one the finest prep grapplers in the history of the state. He’ll stay right in the neighborhood to wrestle at the next level, commuting to Rock Springs to compete for Western Wyoming College.

This past season. Knezovich injured his shoulder early in the season but managed to get healthy and qualify for the State Tournament in Casper. He didn’t wrestle very much last season but was back to his old self in Casper with a 6-0 win over Sam Gregory of Lyman to win the 3A 157-pound championship.

In his junior year, Knezovich went 34-10 to win the 3A 138-pound crown over Hunter Velarde of Lander 8-5. Back in 2022, he won the 3A 120-pound title with a 12-3 win over Peyton Andrews of Star Valley to finish the year 31-8

His winning ways in high school wrestling started in his freshman year as he won 31 of 32 matches and the 3A 106 State Championship with a 6-4 win over Kazen Siler of Lyman. Knezovich was part of two 3A State Championship teams for the Wolves in 2024 and 2023.

Western Wyoming has been a powerhouse in junior college wrestling as they have won the National Championship for the last 2 years running.