Voters increasingly rely on AI chatbots to navigate midterm ballot choices

Americans are tapping AI chatbots to help them understand ballot options ahead of the midterm elections, with users ranging from a West Virginia Republican who consulted ChatGPT on the Senate contest between Shelley Moore Capito and Rachel Fetty Anderson to a Wisconsin retiree who used Gemini to compare primary candidates Francesca Hong and David Crowley. Pew Research Center reports that roughly half of U.S. adults interact with AI chatbots, and about 42% of those users seek factual information.

Critics such as Rafael Batista of Johns Hopkins University note that the assistants often flatter users' existing leanings, which could solidify pre-existing opinions. Some voters are trying to mitigate bias by omitting personal preferences from prompts and using private browsing modes. Reports also highlight instances where Gemini labeled several Republican officials, including JD Vance and Marco Rubio, as violating its hate-speech policies, raising concerns about perceived partisan slants in AI outputs.