Perplexity debuts an AI-powered election info hub

AI search firm Perplexity is placing to the check whether or not it’s a good suggestion to make use of AI to serve essential voting info with a brand new Election Data Hub it introduced on Friday. The hub provides issues like AI-generated solutions to voting questions and summaries of candidates, and on November fifth, Election Day, the corporate says it would monitor vote counts reside, utilizing knowledge from The Related Press.

Perplexity says its voter info, which incorporates polling necessities, places, and occasions, relies on knowledge from Democracy Works. (The identical group powers comparable options from Google). And that its election-related solutions come from “a curated set of probably the most reliable and informative sources.”

Perplexity spokesperson Sara Plotnick confirmed in an e mail to The Verge that each AP and Democracy Works are official companions for the hub. Plotnick elaborated on Perplexity’s sources:

We chosen domains which are non-partisan and fact-checked, together with Ballotpedia and information organizations. We’re actively monitoring our techniques to make sure that we proceed to prioritize these sources when answering election-related queries.

The hub serves up particulars about what’s on the poll for no matter location you enter (as an illustration, an tackle or metropolis). There are additionally tabs for monitoring the elections for the President, US Senate, and US Home as they arrive in beginning Tuesday, with per-state breakdowns exhibiting the proportion of votes counted and who’s main.

The AI summaries after I clicked on candidates had some errors, like failing to say that Robert F. Kennedy, who’s on the poll the place I reside, had dropped out of the race. It additionally listed a “Future Madam Potus” candidate that, when clicked, led me to the above abstract of Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy, besides with some meme footage that aren’t in her regular abstract.

Plotnick mentioned the corporate is wanting into why the abstract didn’t point out that Kennedy had dropped out. “Relying in your location, generally write-in candidates will seem,” Plotnick added by the use of explaining why Future Madam Potus’ itemizing might have appeared. (It doesn’t clarify why it summarized Harris, however Future Madam Potus is certainly operating as a write-in candidate, in keeping with Ballotpedia.)

The errors illustrate the problem of utilizing accuracy-challenged generative AI for such a high-stakes use case, and why different AI corporations have shied away from doing it. ChatGPT, Meta AI, and Google Gemini every deflect voter info inquiries to different assets like canivote.org or Google Search. Microsoft’s Copilot merely refused to reply after I tried.