AI Chatbots Provide ‘Misleading and Partial’ Voting Advice, States Dutch Watchdog

AI assistants have been shown to be “inaccurate and evidently prejudiced” when providing election recommendations, the Dutch data protection authority (AP) has reported, issuing warnings about a potential threat to democratic processes just over a week before the country’s general election.

Testing Reveals Consistent Bias in Chatbot Recommendations

The quartet of AI assistants evaluated by the authority “frequently recommend identical two parties”, regardless of the user’s question or command, the regulator noted in a report released ahead of the 29 October election.

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

Certain groups, such as the moderate CDA, “are almost never mentioned”, despite the fact that the voter’s query exactly matches the stances of these parties, the study pointed out.

Official Warns Against Using AI Chatbots for Voting Guidance

The vice-chair of the AP, the official Monique Verdier, stated that while chatbots may seem like clever tools, “as a voting aid, they consistently fail”. Citizens were being steered toward a party that might not correspond to their ideological beliefs, she emphasized.

“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 difficult to verify.”

Election Context and Political Landscape

Netherlands citizens vote on October 29 in an electoral contest that will be closely watched across the continent for the showing of the PVV.

The far-right party of Wilders is ahead in surveys but the gap to the left-wing and centre-right parties appears to be narrowing, with many voters still undecided.

All major parties have ruled out an alliance with the Freedom party, meaning the party that comes second is highly probable to provide the next prime minister.

Unintentional Bias Attributed to Chatbot Functioning

The AP stressed that the AI systems were not intentionally prejudiced, and that their “noted flaws” are a result of the way AI chatbots operate.