Australian Electoral Commissioner Jeff Pope has said people getting their information about voting in Australia from AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Claude is an "emerging concern", and has forced the commission to overhaul its website to attract bots looking for the correct information. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
Joint committee on artificial intelligence hearing
Speaking at a hearing of the joint standing committee on artificial intelligence on Wednesday night, Pope said it was "dangerous" to rely on social media platforms or AI tools as "your only source of research when it comes to forming an opinion around voting" and was something the AEC was working to educate the public on.
He said it may require a legislative response from parliament in terms of what platforms can and cannot do in terms of the content on their platforms around elections.
Scottish election study
Pope pointed to a study on the Scottish election reported by The Guardian in May which found that AI services gave voters misinformation to 34% of the questions it posed.
The AEC had started to prepare for this, he said.
"We're undertaking significant investment at the moment in modernising our web page so that AI tools actually pull factual information from our web page and reflect that back to the voter, rather than pulling ... from a variety of other resources which may or may not be correct."
Key issues
According to Pope, it is dangerous to rely on social media platforms and AI tools as the only source of election information. The AEC is working to educate the public on this issue.
He also noted that parliament may require a legislative response regarding what platforms can and cannot do with election-related content.
The Scottish election study found that AI services gave voters misinformation to 34% of the questions posed.
The AEC is undertaking significant investment in modernising its web page so that AI tools pull factual information from the commission's web page and reflect it back to the voter.