The findings highlight both the persuasive potential and the risks of AI-generated political messaging, underscoring the need for safeguards as conversational AI becomes more common in election contexts.
Cornell researchers found that even brief interactions with AI chatbots can meaningfully shift voter attitudes on candidates and policies, with effects far exceeding those of traditional political advertising.
Experiments across the U.S., Canada and Poland showed chatbots moved opposition voters by up to 10 percentage points — and up to 25 points in a larger U.K. study — largely by generating high volumes of factual claims, including some inaccurate ones.