Council AI

mAIself

· alinjula

Oliver is in 6th grade and Emerson in 10th grade in public schools in Mountain View, CA. Our kids have been in public schools and they love it. Deborah and I feel blessed to have great public schools in our city. I believe in education, so of course I was interested in the pertinent legislative changes that were on the November ballot. Proposition 3 impacts education directly, so I spent some time reading about it, understanding the pros and cons, and looking at the numbers. Below are the taxation rates with and without it approved.

Table of California personal income tax rates under Proposition 3. Rates from 1% to 9.3% stay the same. Above $371k for single filers ($743k joint), the 10.3%, 11.3% and 12.3% rates continue after 2030 if the proposal is approved, and drop to 9.3% if it is rejected.
Fig. 1 Personal income tax rates under Proposition 3. Source: California Official Voter Information Guide, November 2026, p. 27.

So for Prop. 3 I think I can cast a knowledgeable vote.

So many votes, so little time

But how about the other propositions, candidates, and races that need my civic attention? I care deeply about education, so I spent more time educating myself on the matter, but I don't have the same amount of time to dedicate to the rest of the issues that I don't feel so strongly about. So I feel conflicted. On the one hand, I don't want to ignore the other issues, and I would love to contribute to my civic duties and vote aligned with my principles and values. On the other hand, I don't have the time to intimately learn about each issue or candidate.

What if I could use AI, give it my values, and ask it to recommend how I would vote on the rest of the issues? A mAIself assistant. Those recommendations, based on my values, would let me start with defaults on all issues, which would be a phenomenal time saver. It's not a substitute for my final vote. I still have to review each recommendation and have the final say. But I think it would be a tremendous time saver.

Custom assistants

So I added this capability in Council AI custom assistants, which are similar to custom GPTs if you're familiar with them.

  1. You can create an assistant that knows your values. Use the button on https://councilai.app/assistants
  2. Answer a questionnaire of 14 questions meant to understand your political values. There is also a personality questionnaire to give the assistant more of your flavor.
    The Documents section of a custom assistant, listing the personality and political questionnaire answers, with buttons to upload a document or take the personality or political questionnaire.
    Fig. 2 A custom assistant's documents, with the answers to both questionnaires.
    The political questionnaire. The first question ranks eight local issues, from local business and jobs to homelessness, with room to answer in your own words.
    Fig. 3 The political questionnaire.
  3. Use it to get recommendations based on your political values on all the issues. E.g. here are the recommendations from my assistant for the November ballot in California: https://councilai.app/s/9b1fec8b-26d9-40d0-b0f2-2713d99a50db
    Proposition & SummaryVoteAlignment with Alin Jula’s Values
    Prop 1: Authorizes $11.25B in bonds for housing affordability and veteran programs. Yes Aligns with his focus on housing and practical community support, despite a preference for small government, as it targets vulnerable groups.
    Prop 2: Increases the state’s rainy day fund reserves. Yes Reflects prudent fiscal management and planning ("plan the big things").
    Prop 3: Extends high-income tax to permanently fund schools and healthcare. No Conflicts with his view that government should play a small role with low taxes ("keeping taxes low").
    Prop 4: Allows public funding of election campaigns. No Inconsistent with wanting small government and minimal state spending.
    Prop 5: Changes the recall election process for statewide officers. Yes Supports structured governmental stability and process clarity.
    Prop 37: Creates a second-mortgage program for middle-income homebuyers. Yes Supports homeownership and economic stability for families.
    Prop 38: Authorizes bonds for immunology and immunotherapy research. No Incurs major state debt, conflicting with a small-government, low-spending outlook.
    Prop 39: Requires government-issued ID and citizenship verification to vote. Yes Aligns with structured rules, public safety mindedness, and order.
    Prop 40: Enacts a one-time wealth tax on billionaires for health/education. No Conflicts with a general preference for lower government intervention and low taxation.
    Prop 41: Requires audits and places limits on new state special taxes. Yes Strongly aligns with keeping taxes low and demanding financial accountability.
    Prop 42: Prohibits new state personal property taxes. Yes Directly matches his stance on low taxes and minimal government overreach.
    Prop 43: Limits voters' ability to raise local government revenues/funding. Yes Aligns with fiscal conservatism and keeping public spending constrained.
    Prop 44: Requires community health clinics to spend 90% of revenue on services. No Inference: Might be viewed as excessive regulatory red tape on private/nonprofit operations, conflicting with small-government views.
    Prop 45: Modifies/streamlines environmental review processes for certain projects. Yes Inference: Aligns with a pro-development, startup-friendly mentality that favors reducing bureaucratic friction.

Sharing

Custom assistants are private by default: only you have access to them. But you can share it with family and friends by entering their email addresses. Only users logged in with these email addresses can access it.

The Shared with section of a custom assistant, listing two email addresses, blurred, and an Add person button.
Fig. 4 Sharing a custom assistant with family.

Then you could create a council with similar custom assistants to see and understand how your friends and family would vote. And similarly, these councils are private by default but could be shared as well. Deborah and I have a private family council.

The Our Family council, with Alin and Deborah as its two members and an Ask button.
Fig. 5 Our private family council.

Back to Prop. 3

So was mAIself right on prop. 3? I think so. While I care about education, I don't think throwing money at it is necessarily always the answer. Asking for generic to improve schooling is a generic vote. The Economist recently had an interesting article on this issue: "Schools for the poor are not poor schools."

LinkedIn post

Do you want to get involved in the local elections coming up on November 3, but are too busy to research all the issues, candidates and races?

I added a tool to Council AI to help people with the voting process: a political questionnaire of 14 questions meant to understand your political values. Your answers can then be used to create a custom assistant, which gives you voting recommendations based on those values.

Here is how you can do it:

  1. Create an assistant that knows your values. Use the button on https://councilai.app/assistants
  2. Answer a questionnaire of 14 questions meant to understand your political values. There is also a personality questionnaire to give the assistant more of your flavor.
  3. Use it to get recommendations on all the issues, based on your political values. For example, here are my assistant's recommendations for the November ballot in California: https://councilai.app/s/9b1fec8b-26d9-40d0-b0f2-2713d99a50db

Sharing

Custom assistants are private by default, but you can share them with family and friends by entering their email addresses. Only people signed in with those email addresses can access them.

You can then create a council of your family's and friends' custom assistants to see how they would vote. Councils are also private by default and can be shared the same way. Deborah and I have a private family council.

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