Many Quebec voters got false election information from chatbot, MPs hear

A Parliamentary committee heard on Thursday that many Quebec voters received inaccurate election information from chatbots, according to a report by The Canadian Press. Aengus Bridgman, a McGill political scientist, led a study that found around 40 per cent of Quebec voters turned to AI chatbots for election information during the recent Quebec election.

However, because most Quebec news outlets have blocked chatbots from accessing their content, these voters were unable to obtain accurate and up-to-date information. Taylor Owen, an associate professor in the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill, explained that researchers found that 39 per cent of the voting advice provided by ChatGPT during the last three weeks of the election campaign was from an error-filled hobby website created by AI.

He noted that there was no malicious intent behind this, but rather a combination of events that led to a large number of people receiving false information about the election. Conservative MP Blaine Calkins expressed concern, saying that if this can happen accidentally, imagine what could happen intentionally. This meeting marked the first for a new study on AI and Canada's democratic institutions launched by the House of Commons procedure and House affairs committee.