🔗 Share this article Artificial Intelligence Assistants Provide ‘Misleading and Partial’ Voting Advice, Claims Netherlands Regulator AI assistants have been shown to be “unreliable and clearly biased” when providing election recommendations, the Dutch data protection authority (AP) has reported, raising alarms about a potential threat to democracy just eight days before national elections. Testing Reveals Consistent Bias in AI Suggestions The quartet of AI assistants tested by the authority “often end up with the same two parties”, regardless of the user’s question or command, the watchdog explained 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 progressive GroenLinks-PvdA headed by the former European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans. Some parties, such as the centre-right CDA, “are rarely ever cited”, even when the user’s input precisely aligns with the positions of these political entities, the study pointed out. Authority Figure Cautions Against Using AI Chatbots for Election Advice The deputy head of the AP, the official Monique Verdier, commented that while AI assistants appear to be smart resources, “as a voting aid, they consistently fail”. Voters were being pushed toward a party that might not correspond to their ideological beliefs, 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 difficult to verify.” Election Context and Party Dynamics The Dutch head to the polls on 29 October in an election that will be closely watched across the continent for the showing of the Freedom party. The far-right party 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 rejected a coalition with the Freedom party, implying the runner-up party is highly probable to supply the future head of government. Inadvertent Prejudice Attributed to Chatbot Functioning The AP emphasised that the AI systems were not intentionally prejudiced, and that their “identified shortcomings” are a result of the manner in which AI assistants function.