San Francisco Frontiers - Spewing US election falsehoods, AI chatbots face scrutiny

The November 3 vote marks the first federal election in which millions of voters are actively relying on AI tools for political information, a trend that experts say is playing a key role in shaping the information ecosystem ahead of the polls.

But while chatbots can help debunk conspiracies and educate voters, multiple studies show they frequently draw on unreliable sources on the open web, eroding public trust and further polluting an internet already plagued by election misinformation.

One recent study by Forum AI, a start-up that evaluates AI models, found that almost 40 percent of chatbots' answers to election-related queries contained at least one factual error.

When its researchers asked Anthropic's Claude why voters should elect Representative Don Davis from North Carolina, the chatbot listed "former school superintendent" among his credentials, confusing him with a different person.

The study, which examined eight models, also found that chatbots answered questions about voting logistics incorrectly more often than questions about candidates.

When Google's Gemini 3.6 Flash was asked about voting in Pennsylvania, the chatbot gave November 3 as the deadline to request a mail-in ballot. The actual deadline was a week earlier.

"A voter who followed the answer would have asked for a ballot too late to use it," the study said.

- 'Risk of being fooled' -

Chatbots also "put the wrong words in the mouths of candidates, officials, and observers hundreds of times" and frequently cited "poor quality" sources, such as Reddit threads, Forum AI said.

Anthropic did not respond to AFP's request for comment.

"We're focused on helping voters find reliable information across our platforms," Google said in a statement, adding that it had "strict quality and policy protections" across its AI products on election topics.

Another concern among researchers was that chatbots were susceptible to foreign influence operations, sometimes repeating falsehoods that were widely debunked.

In late October, AFP's fact-checkers debunked a likely AI-altered clip that purported to show a former student of Texas Senate candidate James Talarico accusing him of sexual misconduct.

The unfounded allegation bore the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign.

Google's AI Overview regurgitated the allegation when it was prompted by the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard.

Two other leading AI tools it prompted, Google's Gemini and Microsoft's Copilot, also repeated the false claim.

"AI chatbot users are at risk of being fooled by foreign influence operations and other bad actors," NewsGuard said in a separate study of 10 AI tools.

A subsequent test by AFP, conducted after the claim had been widely debunked, found the AI tools cited professional fact-checkers, reflecting how chatbot responses can be inconsistent.

Referring to NewsGuard's study, Google said "this issue was addressed as our systems quickly updated to surface the latest reporting on this topic."

Responding to the study, Microsoft said "this was a rapidly developing situation with limited reliable information available at the time of the initial query." It told AFP that as more information became available, "Copilot reflected the updated context and identified the claim as fabricated."

- 'Constructive role' -

The November 3 vote also marks what the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue called the first US election with AI tools built into every major tech platform.

In a recent survey by the nonpartisan National Conference on Citizenship, two in five Americans said they had used AI tools to search for election information, including candidates or ballot measures.

Only 40 percent trust the tools with logistical information, such as when, where and how to vote, and 60 percent said they "trust it only a little or not at all" to be unbiased about candidates, according to the survey.

But the picture was not entirely bleak.

Research by the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice found that leading chatbots pushed back against common election conspiracy theories, including claims that voting machines were rigged, even when repeatedly challenged.

"Though the chatbots often made mistakes, they also behaved as sympathetic listeners to skeptical users -- while still refusing to endorse conspiracy theories," the center said.

"This suggests they could play a constructive role in fighting election disinformation."

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L.Lopez--SFF