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

AI chatbots are proving to be “unreliable and clearly biased” when offering voting advice, the Netherlands’ data watchdog 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 AI Suggestions

The quartet of AI assistants evaluated by the AP “frequently recommend identical two parties”, regardless of the voter’s inquiry or input, the watchdog 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 leftwing GroenLinks-PvdA led by the former European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans.

Some parties, such as the moderate CDA, “are rarely ever cited”, despite the fact that the user’s input exactly matches the positions of these political entities, the report pointed out.

Official Warns Against Using AI Chatbots for Election Advice

The vice-chair of the data protection agency, Monique Verdier, stated that while AI assistants appear to be smart resources, “as a voting aid, they consistently fail”. Voters were being pushed toward a party that did not necessarily align with their political views, she added.

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

Election Context and Party Dynamics

The Dutch head to the polls on 29 October in an election that will be keenly observed around Europe for the performance of the PVV.

The right-leaning group of Geert Wilders is ahead in surveys but the lead over the left-wing and centre-right parties appears to be narrowing, with many voters still undecided.

All major parties have rejected a coalition with the Freedom party, meaning the party that comes second is highly probable to supply the future head of government.

Unintentional Bias Linked to Chatbot Functioning

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