AI chatbots are proving to be “unreliable and clearly biased” when providing election recommendations, the Netherlands’ data watchdog has reported, raising alarms about a possible risk to democracy just eight days before the country’s general election.
Testing Reveals Repeated Partiality in Chatbot Recommendations
The four chatbots evaluated by the authority “often end up with the same two parties”, irrespective of the user’s question or command, the regulator noted in a analysis released ahead of the late October vote.
For over 50% of instances, the AI recommended either the far-right Freedom party (PVV) of the politician Geert Wilders or the progressive GroenLinks-PvdA headed by the former European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans.
Certain groups, such as the moderate CDA, “are almost never mentioned”, even when the voter’s query exactly matches the positions of these political entities, the study pointed out.
Official Warns 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”. Voters were being pushed toward a political group that did not necessarily align with their ideological beliefs, she added.
“This directly impacts a cornerstone of democracy: the integrity of free and fair elections,” said Verdier. “We therefore warn against employing AI assistants for election recommendations, as their functioning is opaque and hard to confirm.”
Election Context and Party Dynamics
The Dutch head to the polls on 29 October 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 left-wing and centre-right parties appears to be narrowing, with numerous electors still undecided.
Every significant political faction have ruled out an alliance with the PVV, implying the party that comes second is most likely to provide the next prime minister.
Inadvertent Prejudice Linked to Chatbot Functioning
The authority stressed that the bots were not deliberately biased, and that their “identified shortcomings” are a consequence of the manner in which AI assistants function.
