Wise or a political novice? After the states congressional maps were tossed, heres how ChatGPT would redraw them

Published: April 30, 2026

By: Peter Finney Jr., LSU Manship School News Service

NEW ORLEANS — So, what’s the big deal?

As a reformed sportswriter who once asked ChatGPT to plot out the best road trip for visiting national parks in Utah – and got what appeared to be a suitably Mormon answer in five seconds – I wondered how long would it take for the free AI analytical tool to create a reasonable redistricting plan for Louisiana that would map out six contiguous, right-sized congressional districts for the state’s 4.6 million residents.

In this case, about 3.7 seconds.

But, as with all things Louisiana, where politics is waged as 4D chess, checkmate is not that easy, says Greg Rigamer, one of those rare people with the ability to decipher and accommodate both the unswerving validity of mathematical equations and the relentless warrior mentality of politicians, for whom this take-no-prisoners game of redistricting comes down to: “Find me one more vote.”

Throw in the bitter divide of race, the bane of the United States for 250 years, and finding a voting solution that satisfies the most Louisiana residents becomes an AI hallucination.