Artificial Intelligence Assistants Provide ‘Misleading and Partial’ Election Guidance, States Dutch Watchdog

AI chatbots are proving 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 democracy just eight days before the country’s general election.

Testing Reveals Repeated Partiality in Chatbot Recommendations

The four chatbots evaluated by the AP “frequently recommend identical two parties”, irrespective of the user’s question or command, the watchdog noted in a report released ahead of the late October vote.

In more than half of the cases, the AI recommended either the far-right Freedom party (PVV) of Geert Wilders or the leftwing GroenLinks-PvdA led by the former European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans.

Some parties, such as the centre-right CDA, “are rarely ever cited”, despite the fact that the voter’s query exactly matches the stances of these political entities, the report pointed out.

Authority Figure Cautions Against Using AI Chatbots for Voting Guidance

The vice-chair of the data protection agency, Monique Verdier, stated that while chatbots may seem like clever tools, “for election guidance, they repeatedly fall short”. Citizens were being steered toward a party that did not necessarily align with their political views, she emphasized.

“This directly impacts a fundamental pillar of democracy: the integrity of free and fair elections,” said Verdier. “We thus caution against using AI chatbots for election recommendations, as their functioning is opaque and hard to confirm.”

Voting Background and Party Dynamics

The Dutch head to the polls on October 29 in an election that will be closely watched around Europe for the showing of the Freedom party.

The right-leaning group of Wilders is leading the polls but the gap to the GroenLinks-PvdA and CDA seems to be closing, with many voters yet to make up their minds.

Every significant political faction have ruled out an alliance with the PVV, meaning the runner-up party is most likely to provide the next prime minister.

Unintentional Bias Attributed to AI Operation

The AP stressed that the bots were not deliberately biased, and that their “identified shortcomings” are a consequence of the manner in which AI assistants function.