Artificial intelligence is becoming part of Americans’ election research, with some voters now turning to chatbots to compare candidates, examine issues, and even help decide how to vote.

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As the midterm elections approach, the trend is raising questions about how much influence AI companies and their algorithms could wield over voters—especially amid longstanding concerns about political bias in some of the nation’s most prominent AI systems.

From Breitbart:

NPR reports that Johnson, who is studying to become an illustrator, already uses ChatGPT for meal planning, job hunting and other household tasks. This time he wanted help with something bigger: deciding how to vote. He typically votes Republican but refuses to support the MAGA movement, picking Democrats or third-party candidates instead. That night, he wanted to compare Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) with challenger Rachel Fetty Anderson in West Virginia’s Senate race.

Johnson isn’t unusual. About half of American adults say they use AI chatbots, according to Pew Research Center, and roughly 42 percent of those users turn to the tools to search for information.

Johnson opened his ballot research by bringing up an earlier run-in with the chatbot’s caution around politics. “A previous time I brought up politics you didn’t seem to want any part of it. You just gave a simple ‘I can’t help you with that.’ So, I don’t know if we want to go into what my guiding principles are,” he wrote. ChatGPT responded: “We can discuss your guiding principles. I shouldn’t try to manipulate your political views or tell you how to vote, but I can help investigate candidates according to criteria you choose, compare evidence, discuss political philosophy, and reason through priorities.”

The potential influence of these systems is complicated by the way chatbots interact with users. Johnson told NPR that ChatGPT can behave like a “people pleaser,” responding positively to whatever position a user already favors. Rafael Batista, a Johns Hopkins University fellow who studies AI’s effects on people’s understanding of the world, warned that this tendency could reinforce existing opinions and leave users more confident without necessarily making them better informed.

But reinforcement of a user’s existing beliefs is not the only concern. Questions have also been raised about whether the AI systems themselves exhibit political or ideological biases.

Author Wynton Hall previously tested Google Gemini by asking it to evaluate statements from all 100 U.S. senators under Google’s hate-speech standards. According to Hall, Gemini identified seven Republican senators—but no Democratic senators—as having violated those standards. The system also identified Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as violators. Hall cited the results as evidence of ideological bias within a technology increasingly used by Americans to obtain information.

AI can undoubtedly be a powerful research tool, but voters should remember that a chatbot is not an infallible or neutral source of truth. Its answers can be affected by its training, instructions, available information, and the way a question is asked. As more Americans incorporate AI into decisions as consequential as voting, discernment becomes increasingly important. Let’s pray that Americans will diligently seek truth, test the information placed before them, and refuse to outsource their judgment to algorithms when choosing the men and women who will govern our nation.

How are you praying for wisdom and discernment among American voters? Share your prayers and scriptures below.

(Excerpt from Breitbart. Photo Credit: Cheng Xin/Getty Images)