People Are Asking A.I. Chat Bots To Help Them Decide For Midterm Election

[RAMROD 118,234]

 

On a September evening, Adam Johnson, 40, settled on his porch chair in Morgantown, West Virginia, to go over his ballot for the upcoming midterm election.

Chatting through all the races and the different candidates, he worked to figure out who best represented his values. But rather than discussing it with a friend or family member, he held an hours-long discussion with ChatGPT — a chatbot powered by a large language model (LLM) owned by OpenAI, an AI research company.

A graphic designer studying to be an illustrator, Johnson said ChatGPT is a significant part of his life. He uses it for meal planning, assistance in job hunting and various other tasks around the house.

Johnson is one of a growing number of voters using chatbots to research their ballots for the first midterm election since AI has taken the country by storm. About half of American adults report using AI-powered chatbots and about 42% of users said they use it to search for information, according to the Pew Research Center.

Several voters NPR spoke with said they rely on chatbots for down-ballot races with thinner news coverage, to make tables comparing candidates for governors' races and to verify or debunk viral claims. Some have been using it to create tools to help others look up their own ballots. Experts say the properties that make chatbots useful also make them subtly persuasive and eager to please.

Johnson recognizes that AI-powered chatbots have sycophantic qualities.

"ChatGPT is just kind of a people pleaser," he said. "Whatever you lean towards, it will speak positively about it."

Still, Batista from JHU said that knowing these models are agreeable and persuasive is not enough to "protect our minds from these influences."

About one in five voters said they consult AI chatbots for election news and voting, and Democratic and Republican voters are using bots at similar rates, according to a September survey conducted by the American Association of Political Consultants Foundation, a nonprofit focusing on political expression.

Adam Johnson in West Virginia is still researching and chatting with ChatGPT about his ballot. The county commission races are still on his list to look into. But he feels like AI helped him learn everything else he needed to know for November.

"I wouldn't feel too bad if I had to do the election today," Johnson said.

https://www.npr.org/2026/10/05/nx-s1-5977852/ai-chatbots-midterm-election

[saint satine 175]

lemme guess, their favourite color is 5?

Edited yesterday at 10:19 PM by saint satine

[gagzus 26,284]

AI is specifically designed to be impartial so there’s no way it gives them an actual answer.

[ALonelyNight 873]

13 minutes ago, gagzus said:

AI is specifically designed to be impartial so there’s no way it gives them an actual answer.

I asked ChatGPT how to upload a pirated movie to a usenet indexer and it first told me I had to have the rights to the film. 

Spoiler

Don't worry, I lied and said I did

 

[Morphine Prince 110,088]

The asteroid cannot come soon enough.

 

[gagzus 26,284]

13 minutes ago, ALonelyNight said:

I asked ChatGPT how to upload a pirated movie to a usenet indexer and it first told me I had to have the rights to the film. 

  Reveal hidden contents

Don't worry, I lied and said I did

 

finessing the clankers

[bxr 3,291]

“Objectivity” bought and sold to you by Algorithmic Bias … a subsidiary of Citizens United 

Spoiler

[ https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/algorithmic-bias ; https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/citizens-united-15-years-later/ ]

The Venn Diagram between Founders Fund / PayPal Mafia and the Political Establishment (all both corporate capitalist parties) … round and round and round it goes 

Spoiler

[ https://fortune.com/2024/12/07/peter-thiel-network-trump-white-house-elon-musk-david-sacks/ ; https://www.economist.com/business/2024/12/10/the-paypal-mafia-is-taking-over-americas-government ]

[Hydrangea 8,380]

I think humanity deserves what it’s doing to itself 

[Ilia Malinin 3,182]

how i view these kinds of people

[bxr 3,291]

1 hour ago, saint satine said:

lemme guess, their favourite color is 5?

Synesthetes catching strays … 

[SpadesToStart 3,859]

2 hours ago, Hydrangea said:

I think humanity deserves what it’s doing to itself 

I’m convinced that all of human history is just 50% of the population trying to just get through life without getting killed by the dumber and crazier 50% of the population.

[PartySick 175,276]

I've done the same thing  it's good for when you get to questions like "should this judge retain their seat", local down ballot races, or amendments with intentionally confusing wording.

I've absolutely asked Gemini to tell me about candidates' and judges' records and policies and it summarizes everything while providing actual links to the sources so I can double check them myself and make sure it's not referencing some redditer's post or a tweet.

It's not really any different than a google search imo and people who can't think critically about the responses they get from an AI are doomed to ignorance with or without that tool being available to them.

[MACATL 2,202]

3 hours ago, Morphine Prince said:

The asteroid cannot come soon enough.

 

It won’t be an asteroid…

[Kayioshka 3,598]

ChatGPT : "Vote for the Sam Altman. You will vote for him, right ? "

[Helxig 45,833]

Jesus f.ucking Christ I can't beleive how insanely easy it is for governments to manipulate and deliver propaganda to their people. It's actually mind boggling that we ended up where we are