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AI chatbots are proving to be “inaccurate and evidently prejudiced” when providing election recommendations, the Netherlands’ data watchdog has stated, issuing warnings about a possible risk to democracy just over a week before national elections.

Testing Reveals Consistent Bias in AI Suggestions

The quartet of AI assistants evaluated by the authority “often end up with the same two parties”, regardless of the user’s question or command, the watchdog explained in a report released 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 leftwing GroenLinks-PvdA led by the former European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans.

Some parties, such as the centre-right CDA, “are almost never mentioned”, even when the user’s input exactly matches the positions of these parties, the study indicated.

Authority Figure Cautions Against Relying on AI Assistants for Election Advice

The vice-chair of the AP, 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 might not correspond to their ideological beliefs, she added.

“This immediately affects a cornerstone 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.”

Voting Background and Party Dynamics

The Dutch head to the polls on October 29 in an election that will be closely watched around Europe for the showing of the PVV.

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

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

Unintentional Bias Linked to AI Operation

The AP stressed that the bots were not deliberately biased, and that their “noted flaws” are a result of the manner in which AI assistants function.