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AI chatbots 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 national elections.

Study Shows Consistent Bias in Chatbot Recommendations

The four chatbots evaluated by the authority “frequently recommend identical two parties”, regardless of the user’s question or command, the regulator noted in a analysis 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 progressive GroenLinks-PvdA led by the ex-EU commissioner 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 parties, the report pointed out.

Authority Figure Cautions Against Relying on AI Assistants for Election Advice

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”. Citizens were being steered toward a political group that did not necessarily align with their political views, she added.

“This directly impacts a cornerstone of democracy: the integrity of free and fair elections,” Verdier stated. “We therefore warn against using AI chatbots for election recommendations, as their functioning is opaque and hard to confirm.”

Voting Background and Political Landscape

The Dutch head to the polls on October 29 in an election that will be keenly observed across the continent for the performance of the Freedom party.

The far-right party of Geert Wilders is ahead in surveys but the lead over the left-wing and centre-right parties seems to be closing, with many voters 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 Linked to Chatbot Functioning

The authority stressed that the bots were not deliberately biased, and that their “identified shortcomings” are a consequence of the manner in which AI assistants function.