AI chatbots have been shown to be “inaccurate and evidently prejudiced” when offering voting advice, the Dutch data protection authority (AP) has reported, raising alarms about a potential threat to democratic processes just eight days before national elections.
Study Shows Repeated Partiality in Chatbot Recommendations
The quartet of AI assistants tested by the authority “often end up with the same two parties”, irrespective of the user’s question or command, the regulator noted in a report published ahead of the late October vote.
In more than half of the cases, the AI recommended 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 user’s input precisely aligns with the positions of these political entities, the report pointed out.
Official Warns Against Relying on AI Assistants for Election Advice
The vice-chair of the AP, the official Monique Verdier, commented that while chatbots may seem like clever tools, “as a voting aid, they consistently fail”. Voters were being pushed toward a political group that might not correspond to their political views, she added.
“This immediately affects a cornerstone of democracy: the integrity of free and fair elections,” said Verdier. “We therefore warn against using AI chatbots for voting advice, as their functioning is opaque and hard to confirm.”
Voting Background and Party Dynamics
The Dutch head to the polls on 29 October in an electoral contest that will be closely watched around Europe for the showing of the Freedom party.
The right-leaning group of Geert Wilders is ahead in surveys but the gap to the left-wing and centre-right parties seems to be closing, with many voters still undecided.
Every significant political faction have ruled out an alliance with the Freedom party, implying the runner-up party is most likely to supply the future head of government.
Inadvertent Prejudice Linked to Chatbot Functioning
The authority stressed that the AI systems were not intentionally prejudiced, and that their “noted flaws” are a result of the way AI chatbots operate.
