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Digitalization offers many opportunities for democracy. But artificial intelligence in particular carries risks.
We use an app for the weather. We buy clothes online. And we have ChatGPT write bureaucratic letters. Digitalization has found its way into many aspects of life.
It’s different in politics. The tried and tested voting booklet is still sent to Swiss households in printed form before every vote. But what will the democracy of the future look like?
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It looked almost the same in 1975 as it does today. At that time, the Vice Chancellor of the Swiss Federal Chancellery presented the newly designed voting booklet.
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Despite Tiktok and Instagram, the voting booklet is also popular with young people. “It is still the most important source of information when it comes to voting,” says Vice-Chancellor André Simonazzi. But one thing is clear: with the development of traditional media and social media, this will no longer be the case in the future.
There have already been some modernizations in information about voting: the voting booklet is now available in digital form in the “Voteinfo” app.
Since 2016, the Federal Chancellery has also been producing explanatory videos and publishing them on the Federal Council’s YouTube channel. According to the opinion research institute GFS Bern, the offer is well received: people under 40 use the app very intensively.
AI carries many risks
Why not use advances in artificial intelligence (AI) for voting information? For example, an app that answers questions about the templates directly.
You have to handle information very carefully.
“Difficult,” says Vice Chancellor André Simonazzi. “You have to handle information very carefully.” That is a challenge.
Mistakes before a vote can have massive consequences, as the example of the vote on the marriage penalty shows.
Simonazzi cannot imagine relying on AI in such a sensitive environment. If the information based on AI is incorrect, it will have an enormous impact on Swiss democracy.
Information is such an important key in the direct democratic decision-making process.
Political scientist Martina Mousson from the opinion research institute GFS Bern is also critical. There are many legal questions to be clarified and, above all, many critical aspects to be taken into account. “Information is such an important key in the direct democratic decision-making process.”
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Before each vote, the voting booklet is sent to around five million voters. This makes it the publication with the highest circulation in Switzerland.
Keystone/Alessandro Della Valle
Simonazzi and Mousson therefore agree: In the area of democracy, AI is currently in a difficult position. The AI itself also has the same opinion. When asked whether it could answer questions about the voting booklet, ChatGPT said: “Yes, but it would be advisable to rely on official sources.”
Official sources, such as the tried and tested voting booklet, which has been informing millions of Swiss people about the upcoming votes for decades.