Artificial Intelligence Assistants Provide ‘Unreliable and Biased’ Voting Advice, Claims Dutch Watchdog

AI chatbots are proving to be “unreliable and clearly biased” when providing election recommendations, the Dutch data protection authority (AP) has reported, raising alarms about a possible risk to democratic processes just eight days before the country’s general election.

Testing Reveals Repeated Partiality in Chatbot Recommendations

The quartet of AI assistants evaluated by the authority “frequently recommend identical two parties”, regardless of the voter’s inquiry or input, the regulator explained in a analysis released ahead of the 29 October election.

In more than half of the cases, the AI recommended either the far-right Freedom party (PVV) of the politician 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”, even when the user’s input precisely aligns with the stances of these political entities, the study pointed out.

Official Warns Against Relying on AI Assistants 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”. Voters were being pushed toward a party that did not necessarily align with their political views, she emphasized.

“This directly impacts a cornerstone of democracy: the honesty of open and just votes,” Verdier stated. “We thus caution against employing AI assistants for election recommendations, as their operation is unclear and difficult to verify.”

Election Context and Political Landscape

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

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

Every significant political faction have ruled out an alliance with the Freedom party, meaning the runner-up party is most likely to supply the future head of government.

Unintentional Bias Attributed to Chatbot Functioning

The authority stressed that the bots were not deliberately biased, and that their “identified shortcomings” are a consequence of the way AI chatbots operate.