BBB using ChatGPT to help with election program; Other parties hesitant about AI

Farmers party BBB is using ChatGPT to help write its election program for the upcoming parliamentary election, BNR reports after surveying the parties on the artificial intelligence chatbot. Volt is the only other party experimenting with AI.

The CDA, PvDD, VVD, D66, and SGP told BNR that they do not use AI for campaign purposes and have no intention of doing so for the time being. “All other parties did not comment despite repeated requests,” the broadcaster said.

BBB employees use a ChatGPT-based extension to distill the essence of leader Caroline van der Plas’s contributions in parliament. They developed the software themselves. “For example, what is the core message of BBB that you can get from all her contributions about nursing,” campaign leader Henk Vermeer explained to BNR. “ChatGPT sums that up for us. It helps us organize.”

The BBB campaign team uses the chatbot’s texts as input for the program committee. “We do the writing ourselves,” Vermeer said.

Volt uses AI to power a chatbot that answers members’ questions about European policies the party favors. It is an experiment, a Volt spokesperson told the broadcaster.

The other parties that responded to BNR’s questions did not rule out AI use in the future but said they’re not using the technology for the upcoming election.

“We choose precisely to invest as much as possible in personal contact with voters,” the CDA said. Other parties first want to investigate the technology and the risks involved. The PvdD, for example, worries about ChatGPT’s respect for existing privacy legislation.

Oumaima Hajri, an AI researcher at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, warned BNR that political parties have too little in-house experience to handle AI systems with care. So she applauds the parties hesitant to use the tech without further research. She called it crucial that parties that do use AI be transparent about it.