Artificial Intelligence1 min read

Q&A: Hey AI, who should I vote for this year?

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The LLM Election Observatory, led by MIT professors Adam Berinsky, Chara Podimata, and Charles Stewart III, monitors AI chatbot responses to the 2026 U.S. midterm elections. Testing is conducted every few days using standardized queries about hot-button issues, news coverage, result predictions, and election certification. Researchers specifically analyze how output changes based on user attributes like geographic location, personal identity, and political party affiliation. This initiative builds directly on Podimata's earlier findings gathered during the 2024 presidential race to cover complex state and local contests.

Key points

  • MIT researchers created the observatory to track how AI platforms potentially shape voter…: MIT researchers created the observatory to track how AI platforms potentially shape voter decision-making.
  • The monitoring effort analyzes subtle shifts in tone, framing, and cited sources rather t…: The monitoring effort analyzes subtle shifts in tone, framing, and cited sources rather than just factual accuracy.
  • All collected data will be preserved as a historical record accessible to the public and…: All collected data will be preserved as a historical record accessible to the public and external researchers.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

People are peppering artificial intelligence chatbots everyday with questions, but when it comes to politics and the looming 2026 U.S. midterm elections, what role are AI platforms playing? Could an AI chatbot sway a voter to switch parties or re-examine their political beliefs?

MIT researchers have built a new dashboard, called the LLM Election Observatory, to examine, in real-time, how popular AI chatbots are responding to questions about the 2026 midterm elections. The team behind the dashboard — led by Professor Adam Berinsky, Assistant Professor Chara Podimata, and Professor Charles Stewart III — has extensive experience studying voting and election administration, AI and misinformation, and how AI systems are impacting human decision making. In an effort to better understand how AI is shaping the election, they designed the dashboard to simulate how individuals across the country communicate with chatbots.

The team tracks how different AI systems respond to the same fixed set of questions on a range of topics, including election certification, hot-button issues, result predictions, news coverage, and more. Every few days, the LLM Election Observatory team runs the…

Artificial Intelligence