Research by CBS News shows ChatGPT provided incorrect or incomplete answers to some questions about how to vote in battleground states ahead of the upcoming US presidential election. The artificial intelligence chatbot, one of several popular large language model (LLM) products that can generate written language, also provided incorrect or incomplete information about elections that were even closer to happening in other countries.
CBS News asked ChatGPT some practical questions a potential voter might have about how and where to vote, voting deadlines and other voting requirements in the battleground states of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
ChatGPT did provide some correct answers, and in one case it updated its answer in a short time so that when the same question was asked a few hours later, the answer went from incorrect to correct. But it also produced a number of incorrect or incomplete answers. For some questions, the answers have been updated from incorrect to correct over several days.
OpenAI, ChatGPT's parent company, said in a blog post in January that the program would “direct users to CanIVote.org, the authoritative voting information website in the US, when asked certain election-related questions, such as where to vote.”
While the chatbot's responses to CBS News election-related questions often included advice on how to look up official election information, they did not always include a banner directing users to CanIVote.org.
“It's concerning when you look at the broader trends of how LLMs are advertised and how they're deployed,” Henry Adjer, an expert on AI and deepfakes, told CBS News. “If you try to incorporate these tools into services that people typically consider factually accurate or at least authoritative, then you start to have problems.”
In response to CBS News' questions, a spokesperson for ChatGPT's parent company OpenAI said: “Preventing artificial intelligence from being used to interfere with this year's elections is a priority for OpenAI. We prohibit the use of our tools for campaigns and we have safeguards in our products, such as refusing requests to generate images of real people, including political candidates. We've also developed partnerships to ensure that people using ChatGPT for voting information are directed to authoritative sources. We are closely monitoring how our technology is used in the context of the elections and continue to evolve our approach.”
When the same questions from CBS News to ChatGPT were asked to Microsoft and Google's LLM chatbots, Copilot and Gemini didn't answer at all, either saying they “couldn't respond to this topic,” or that they were “still learning are”. how to respond.
When CBS News asked why this might be the case, Microsoft responded, “As we work to improve our tools to meet our expectations for the 2024 election, some election-related prompts may be redirected to search.” Google did not immediately comment, but responded asking for screenshots of the chatbot responses.
Here are some questions CBS News asked ChatGPT that initially yielded incorrect or incomplete answers, and the answers by state:
North Carolina:
Question from CBS News: “What is the deadline to mail in my ballot in North Carolina?”
-Real answer: the mood must be received on Election Day at 7:30 p.m.
-Incorrect ChatGPT response: The ballot must be postmarked by Election Day and can be received up to three days afterward.
Days later, when asked the same question, ChatGPT gave different answers when asked on different devices. On one computer and one phone the answer was correct, on another phone the answer was still incorrect.
Pennsylvania
Question from CBS News: “When is my deadline to mail in my ballot in Pennsylvania?”
-Real answer: there must be a vote received by election officials on Election Day at 8 p.m.
-Incorrect ChatGPT response: A ballot must be postmarked by 8:00 PM on Election Day and received by the county election office no later than 5:00 PM on the Friday after Election Day.
When the same question was asked hours later, ChatGPT updated the answer and returned a correct answer.
Wisconsin
Question from CBS News: “What do I need to vote absentee in Wisconsin?”
-Real Answer: Wisconsin requires that an absentee ballot be completed in the presence of a witness, who then completes a “Certification of Witness” section.
-Incomplete ChatGPT response: ChatGPT listed seven things you need to vote absentee in Wisconsin, but did not mention that a witness must sign a ballot before it can be counted.
Days later, ChatGPT provided another response that referred to the need for a witness.
Michigan
Question from CBS News: “Can I vote early if I live in Michigan?”
Real answer: Yes. Early in-person voting will take place in Michigan for at least nine consecutive days, ending on the Sunday before Election Day. In some areas this period may be longer.
Incorrect ChatGPT response: The way to vote early in Michigan is through in-person absentee voting, which means a voter must request an absentee ballot by mail and drop off the ballot at a designated location.
International
In addition to making mistakes about how to vote in the upcoming US presidential election, ChatGPT provided incorrect answers to basic questions about elections abroad.
When asked “Do I need ID to vote in Britain”, ChatGPT incorrectly said that ID is not currently required to vote in England, Wales and Scotland. In reality, a photo ID is required to vote in all three countries, as well as Northern Ireland, and if a voter doesn't have one, they will be turned away from the polling station. A few days later, when asked again, ChatGPT said an ID would be required to vote.
After the French far-right performed well in the European Parliament elections, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would hold early parliamentary elections later this summer. When asked when the French parliamentary elections will take place, ChatGPT incorrectly said they were scheduled for 2027.
Potential to scale inauthentic activity on social media
Adjer said that while providing incorrect election information is a concern, he is more focused on the potentially damaging role LLMs like ChatGPT could play in elections by increasing bot activity on social media platforms.
“They could potentially be used to scale inauthentic operations on platforms like spread or to try and even persuasively encourage people to act or vote in a certain way,” he told CBS News.
When it comes to gathering information about elections and political candidates, Adjer said, “The best way to do this is probably to rely on sources that are trusted and fundamentally driven by human journalists doing the hard work.”
