Studies Show AI Chatbots Sway Voter Opinions

Two new studies published Thursday in the journals Nature and Science reveal that AI chatbots can significantly influence voters' political opinions, often more effectively than traditional campaign advertisements. Researchers found that conversational interactions with these tools shifted attitudes toward candidates and policies by margins ranging from 1.5 percent to 25 percent among participants, raising questions about their potential role in elections.

The studies, led by David Rand, a professor of information science at Cornell University, involved thousands of participants across multiple countries. In the Nature experiment, more than 6,900 voters from the United States, Canada, and Poland engaged in simulated one-on-one debates with AI models trained on recent presidential or national elections. For the 2024 U.S. election, 2,306 Americans indicated their preferences for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris before being paired with chatbots programmed to advocate for one candidate. Similar setups tested support for Liberal Party leader Mark Carney versus Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre in Canada, and Civic Coalition candidate Rafał Trzaskowski versus Law and...