Chatbots misinform citizens about European Parliament elections

Popular chatbots are spreading falsehoods about the European Parliament elections, according to new research. ChatGPT , Microsoft's Copilot and Google's Gemini tools returned incorrect election dates and information about how to cast a ballot at the European Parliament elections, according to analysis by Berlin-based NGO Democracy Reporting International. They were also found to p rovide broken or even irrelevant links to YouTube videos, and even content in Japanese . The r esearchers asked the same 10 questions in 10 European languages in March 2024 to the chatbots, to which ChatGPT 4 (OpenAI's paid version) was found to perform the best. Google’s Gemini was deemed the least likely to give correct answers. The findings highlghted concerns about the accuracy and reliability of popular chatbots, their tendency to 'hallucinate' information and produce misinformation and disinformation, and their potential impact on politics, elections and democracy. Hallucination (artificial intelligence) In the field of artificial intelligence (AI), a hallucination or artificial hallucination (also called bullshitting, confabulation or delusion) is a response generated by AI that contains false or misleading information presented as fact . Source: Wikipedia 🔗 System 🤖 ChatGPT Copilot Gemini Operator: Alphabet/Google; Microsoft; OpenAI Developer: Alphabet/Google; Microsoft; OpenAI Country: Europ ean Parliament Sector: Politics Purpose: Generate text Technology: Chatbot Issue: Accuracy/reliability; Mis/disinf ormation

Date it happened

2024-03-01

Organisation involved

Google; Microsoft; OpenAI

Product, system or model

ChatGPT; Microsoft Copilot; Gemini

This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.