In the lead-up to the general elections in the Netherlands on the 29th of October, the use of AI by politicians and voters alike was a highly discussed topic. Claes de Vreese has been sharing his expertise and advice on the possible influence of AI on voter decisions, as well as the implications of politicians’ public use of AI-generated images as part of campaigns. Read on for a summary of the main points (most articles are in Dutch).
Lijsttrekkers staan afgebeeld op duizend (voornamelijk beledigende) AI-memes op X (Pointer KRO-NCRV)
This research-based article discusses depictions of party leaders in offensive, AI-generated memes on X — Claes de Vreese talks about the accessibility of creating these images and how political actors could react to them. This research by Pointer was further discussed in this NRC article (paywalled) and this AD article, with additional input from Claes de Vreese.
Hoi ChatGPT, wat moet ik stemmen? De risico’s van een AI-bot als kieshulp (Financieel Dagblad, paywalled)
This article discusses the risks of relying on AI chatbots like ChatGPT to make decisions as a voter. Since it can make mistakes in summarizing party programs and tends to reproduce political bias from its training data, voters should take great caution with the information they receive from AI.
Stemadvies vragen aan ChatGPT is geen goed idee, zegt deze hoogleraar: ‘Standpunten van de PVV kunnen zomaar in de schoenen van de VVD worden geschoven’ (Het Parool, paywalled)
In this interview, Claes de Vreese generally advises against using LLMs for voting advice, also due to the mistakes they are prone to make. As shown before, AI outputs should be taken with a grain of salt.
AI-manipulatie in de politiek: PVV is bepaald niet de enige (Nieuwsuur)
This video interview shows how politicians across the world, but also in the Netherlands, have been integrating controversial AI-generated visuals in their campaigning: Claes de Vreese highlights that this tends to happen more on the right side of the political spectrum, as well as in populist communication.
‘Als burger houd ik mijn hart vast’ (New Scientist)
The broader impact of AI in elections is discussed in this interview more generally — many political actors, from parties to voters, are changing their habits and being impacted by the effects of this technology.
Besides these highlights, these articles from NOS, de Telegraaf (paywalled), EenVandaag, and The Washington Post (paywalled) as well as these audio pieces from NPO Radio and Altinget (in Danish) also feature insight from Claes de Vreese, our lab director.
