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WASHINGTON: Dispensing misleading voter information, misidentifying candidates, and regurgitating Russian propaganda, AI chatbots are sowing information chaos ahead of the US midterm elections, researchers say.<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n One recent study by Forum AI, a start-up that evaluates AI models, found that almost 40 percent of chatbots\u2019 answers to election-related queries contained at least one factual error.<\/p>\n When its researchers asked Anthropic\u2019s Claude why voters should elect Representative Don Davis from North Carolina, the chatbot listed \u201cformer school superintendent\u201d among his credentials, confusing him with a different person.<\/p>\n The study, which examined eight models, also found that chatbots answered questions about voting logistics incorrectly more often than questions about candidates.<\/p>\n When Google\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cA voter who followed the answer would have asked for a ballot too late to use it,\u201d the study said.<\/p>\n \u2018Risk of being fooled\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Chatbots also \u201cput the wrong words in the mouths of candidates, officials, and observers hundreds of times\u201d and frequently cited \u201cpoor quality\u201d sources, such as Reddit threads, Forum AI said.<\/p>\n Anthropic did not respond to AFP\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re focused on helping voters find reliable information across our platforms,\u201d Google said in a statement, adding that it had \u201cstrict quality and policy protections\u201d across its AI products on election topics.<\/p>\n Another concern among researchers was that chatbots were susceptible to foreign influence operations, sometimes repeating falsehoods that were widely debunked.<\/p>\n In late October, AFP\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The unfounded allegation bore the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s AI Overview regurgitated the allegation when it was prompted by the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard.<\/p>\n Two other leading AI tools it prompted, Google\u2019s Gemini and Microsoft\u2019s Copilot, also repeated the false claim.<\/p>\n \u201cAI chatbot users are at risk of being fooled by foreign influence operations and other bad actors,\u201d NewsGuard said in a separate study of 10 AI tools.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Referring to NewsGuard\u2019s study, Google said \u201cthis issue was addressed as our systems quickly updated to surface the latest reporting on this topic.\u201d<\/p>\n Responding to the study, Microsoft said \u201cthis was a rapidly developing situation with limited reliable information available at the time of the initial query.\u201d It told AFP that as more information became available, \u201cCopilot reflected the updated context and identified the claim as fabricated.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Constructive role\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Only 40 percent trust the tools with logistical information, such as when, where and how to vote, and 60 percent said they \u201ctrust it only a little or not at all\u201d to be unbiased about candidates, according to the survey.<\/p>\n But the picture was not entirely bleak.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThough the chatbots often made mistakes, they also behaved as sympathetic listeners to skeptical users \u2014 while still refusing to endorse conspiracy theories,\u201d the center said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n