🔗 Share this article Artificial Intelligence Assistants Provide ‘Unreliable and Biased’ Election Guidance, States Dutch Watchdog AI chatbots are proving to be “unreliable and clearly biased” when providing election recommendations, the Netherlands’ data watchdog has reported, issuing warnings about a possible risk to democracy just over a week before the country’s general election. Study Shows Repeated Partiality in Chatbot Recommendations The four chatbots evaluated by the AP “often end up with the same two parties”, regardless of the voter’s inquiry or input, the regulator noted in a analysis released ahead of the late October vote. In more than half of the cases, the chatbot suggested either the far-right Freedom party (PVV) of the politician Geert Wilders or the leftwing GroenLinks-PvdA headed by the former European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans. Some parties, such as the centre-right CDA, “are almost never mentioned”, even when the user’s input exactly matches the stances of these political entities, the report indicated. Authority Figure Cautions Against Relying on AI Assistants for Election Advice The vice-chair of the AP, Monique Verdier, stated that while AI assistants appear to be smart resources, “for election guidance, they repeatedly fall short”. Voters were being pushed toward a party that might not correspond to their ideological beliefs, she emphasized. “This directly impacts a cornerstone of democracy: the integrity of free and fair elections,” said Verdier. “We therefore warn against employing AI assistants for voting advice, as their functioning is opaque and hard to confirm.” Voting Background and Political Landscape Netherlands citizens vote on 29 October in an election that will be keenly observed across the continent for the showing of the Freedom party. The far-right party of Geert Wilders is ahead in surveys but the gap to the left-wing and centre-right parties seems to be closing, with numerous electors yet to make up their minds. All major parties have ruled out an alliance with the PVV, implying the party that comes second is most likely to supply the future head of government. Inadvertent Prejudice Attributed to Chatbot Functioning The AP stressed that the AI systems were not intentionally prejudiced, and that their “identified shortcomings” are a result of the manner in which AI assistants function.