Science & Tech · AI · 2 hrs ago
AI chatbots give voters misleading information about midterms, researchers find
Researchers found errors in popular chatbots’ election answers as US voters seek information ahead of the midterm elections.
An ongoing study tested seven major chatbots with questions about candidates, polling places and voting rules.
In October, 13.9% of answers about voting logistics were outdated or inaccurate, and some errors could cause voters to miss deadlines or required steps.
The rate of errors varied by chatbot, with Claude and Copilot responsible for most of the clear factual errors in the study.
Chatbots may shape views of candidates and issues even when they do not directly tell people how to vote.
Experts say voters should check chatbot answers against reliable official information.
Microsoft said it is refining Copilot’s election responses, while Anthropic said some safeguards may not have been active in the researchers’ testing.
Researchers found that popular AI chatbots sometimes give voters inaccurate or outdated information about candidates and voting rules ahead of the US midterms.
In an October study, 13.9% of answers to voting-logistics questions were outdated or inaccurate, and 5.9% could mislead voters.
The researchers said chatbot accuracy varied by system, with Claude and Copilot producing many of the clear errors.
A separate report found that chatbot answers could differ by language, while a first-time voter’s experiment highlighted gaps in Spanish-language responses.
Experts and reporters also said chatbots may shape voters’ views of candidates and issues even when they do not recommend who to vote for.
- Who
- Researchers at Innovating for the Public Good tested major chatbots, and voters seeking election information are affected.
- What
- Studies and tests found that chatbots can give misleading election information and may shape views of candidates and issues.
- When
- Ahead of the US midterms on November 3, 2026; the IFPG data was collected in October.
- Where
- The United States, including tests involving Texas, Michigan and California election questions.
- Why
- Voters are increasingly using chatbots to find election information, but the systems can make factual errors and provide incomplete answers.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
IFPG collected data on chatbot answers to election questions, including voting logistics.
El País English published a first-time voter’s account of testing ChatGPT for election information.
NPR and Gizmodo published reports on chatbot election answers and their potential effects on voters.
The US midterm election was scheduled to take place.
- Voting-logistics answers
- 13.9% were outdated or inaccurate in IFPG’s October data
- Potentially misleading answers
- 5.9% of voting-logistics responses
- Chatbots tested by IFPG
- Seven, including Claude, Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity
- Claude on voting questions
- Wrong or outdated information one in three times, according to IFPG
- Copilot on voting questions
- Wrong or outdated information one in four times, according to IFPG
- Midterm election date
- November 3, 2026
4 sources
AI chatbots are becoming political advisers. Their answers can mislead voters
AI Chatbots Won’t Tell You How to Vote, But They Could Shape How You Think
I’m voting for the first time in the midterms, and I used an AI chatbot to get informed. Here’s what I found out
What AI chatbots are saying about the midterms
What people are saying
We've been increasingly seeing the role of AI delivering answers to users in a very authoritative, very convincing way, but with meaningful errors as a point of concern
Users of these chatbot systems could be given errors in how they vote or miss a key voting deadline and elements in the whole voting process that could be derailed if they trusted these answers.
because IFPG conducted part of its research using an Application Programming Interface (API), some of Claude's key safeguards may not have been active.
It’s best to treat artificial intelligence like a smart friend who’s sometimes right.