🔗 Share this article Artificial Intelligence Assistants Deliver ‘Unreliable and Biased’ Election Guidance, States Netherlands Regulator AI assistants are proving to be “inaccurate and evidently prejudiced” when providing election recommendations, the Netherlands’ data watchdog has reported, issuing warnings about a potential threat to democratic processes just over a week before the country’s general election. Study Shows Repeated Partiality in Chatbot Recommendations The four chatbots tested by the authority “frequently recommend identical two parties”, irrespective of the user’s question or command, the regulator noted in a analysis published ahead of the late October vote. In more than half of the cases, the chatbot suggested either the far-right Freedom party (PVV) of Geert Wilders or the leftwing GroenLinks-PvdA led by the former European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans. Some parties, such as the moderate CDA, “are rarely ever cited”, even when the user’s input precisely aligns with the positions of these parties, the report indicated. Authority Figure Cautions Against Using AI Chatbots for Voting Guidance The deputy head of the data protection agency, Monique Verdier, stated that while chatbots may seem like clever tools, “as a voting aid, they consistently fail”. Voters were being pushed toward a political group that might not correspond to their political views, she emphasized. “This directly impacts a fundamental pillar of democracy: the integrity of free and fair elections,” Verdier stated. “We thus caution against employing AI assistants for election recommendations, as their functioning is opaque and hard to confirm.” Election Context and Political Landscape Netherlands citizens vote on 29 October in an electoral contest that will be closely watched around Europe for the showing of the Freedom party. The far-right party of Geert Wilders is leading the polls but the lead over the left-wing and centre-right parties appears to be narrowing, with many voters still undecided. Every significant political faction have ruled out an alliance with the Freedom party, implying the runner-up party is highly probable to provide the next prime minister. Unintentional Bias Attributed to AI Operation The authority stressed that the AI systems were not intentionally prejudiced, and that their “identified shortcomings” are a result of the way AI chatbots operate.