Artificial Intelligence Assistants Provide ‘Misleading and Partial’ Voting Advice, States Dutch Watchdog

AI chatbots have been shown to be “inaccurate and evidently prejudiced” when offering voting advice, the Dutch data protection authority (AP) has reported, issuing warnings about a potential threat to democracy just eight days before the country’s general election.

Testing Reveals Repeated Partiality in Chatbot Recommendations

The four chatbots tested by the AP “often end up with the same two parties”, regardless of the user’s question or command, the watchdog noted in a analysis published ahead of the late October vote.

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 ex-EU commissioner Frans Timmermans.

Certain groups, such as the centre-right CDA, “are almost never mentioned”, even when the voter’s query precisely aligns with the positions of these parties, the study indicated.

Official Warns Against Using AI Chatbots for Voting Guidance

The deputy head of the data protection agency, Monique Verdier, commented that while AI assistants appear to be smart resources, “as a voting aid, they consistently fail”. Citizens were being steered toward a political group that did not necessarily align with their ideological beliefs, she emphasized.

“This directly impacts a fundamental pillar of democracy: the integrity of free and fair elections,” said Verdier. “We therefore warn against using AI chatbots for voting advice, as their operation is unclear and difficult to verify.”

Voting Background and Political Landscape

Netherlands citizens vote on October 29 in an election that will be keenly observed around Europe for the performance 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 many voters yet to make up their minds.

Every significant political faction have rejected a coalition with the PVV, implying the party that comes second is most likely to supply the future head of government.

Inadvertent Prejudice 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.