AI Chatbots Provide ‘Unreliable and Biased’ Voting Advice, Claims Dutch Watchdog

AI chatbots are proving to be “inaccurate and evidently prejudiced” when providing election recommendations, the Dutch data protection authority (AP) has stated, raising alarms about a possible risk to democratic processes just over a week before the country’s general election.

Study Shows Repeated Partiality in Chatbot Recommendations

The quartet of AI assistants evaluated by the authority “often end up with the same two parties”, irrespective of the user’s question or command, the regulator explained in a analysis released ahead of the late October vote.

For over 50% of instances, the chatbot suggested either the right-wing PVV of the politician Geert Wilders or the progressive GroenLinks-PvdA led by the former European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans.

Some parties, such as the moderate CDA, “are rarely ever cited”, even when the voter’s query precisely aligns with the positions of these political entities, the report indicated.

Authority Figure Cautions Against Using AI Chatbots for Election Advice

The vice-chair of the AP, Monique Verdier, commented that while chatbots may seem like clever tools, “for election guidance, they repeatedly fall short”. Citizens were being steered toward a political group that might not correspond to their political views, she added.

“This directly impacts a cornerstone of democracy: the integrity of free and fair elections,” Verdier stated. “We thus caution against employing AI assistants for voting advice, as their functioning is opaque and difficult to verify.”

Election Context and Party Dynamics

Netherlands citizens vote on October 29 in an election that will be keenly observed across the continent for the performance of the Freedom party.

The far-right party of Geert Wilders is leading the polls but the gap to the left-wing and centre-right parties appears to be narrowing, with numerous electors yet to make up their minds.

Every significant political faction have rejected a coalition with the Freedom party, meaning the runner-up party is most likely to supply the future head of government.

Unintentional Bias Linked to AI Operation

The authority stressed that the AI systems were not intentionally prejudiced, and that their “identified shortcomings” are a result of the way AI chatbots operate.