Why some Ontario voters are turning to AI chatbots for 2026 municipal elections

In Toronto’s upcoming municipal election, some voters are turning to AI chatbots for guidance, like Eric Apps, a lawyer in Parkdale-High Park. Apps sought the opinions of Claude, an AI chatbot, to find the top five polling candidates and their policies on key issues. Claude provided a simple, easily digestible format of the candidates and their positions, which Apps found helpful.

However, the bot struggled to provide information on less-well-known candidates and those with minimal online presence. Apps acknowledged that the chatbot's information quality may not be as high as he would like, especially when it gathers data from user-generated social media content. McGill University researchers found that during Quebec’s recent provincial election, approximately 40% of voters turned to AI chatbots, which often provided false or outdated information due to news outlets blocking access to their websites.

Experts warn that this reliance on AI bots could undermine democratic processes and citizen judgment. Researchers and companies, such as Anthropic, are working to improve the accuracy and credibility of AI chatbot information, but some concerns remain about their reliance on potentially biased or false data.