Artificial intelligence is starting to make some candidates rethink the way they campaign for political office.
These days, millions of Americans ask chatbots about everything under the sun 鈥� and politics is no different. Candidates are starting to realize they need to position themselves in ways that make sure they鈥檙e included in those answers.
A research project done by a progressive political group called Run For Something has created an AI tool called Campsite 鈥� short for campaign insight 鈥� that works to help campaigns understand what is and isn鈥檛 being said about them in chats.
鈥淲e were trying to figure out just what ChatGPT is saying about our 400-odd endorsed candidates last year,鈥� said Jordan Haines, the chief technology officer for Run For Something.
鈥淲hen folks ask who’s the most progressive candidate running for school board, or they ask about a particular race, are they getting back information from ChatGPT? It turned into a whole thing as we realized the scope of the answers and how much volatility and noise in that there is.鈥�
Different AI chatbots will provide different answers and utilize different sources. What they found was, in some cases, legitimate candidates in big, statewide races weren鈥檛 even registering.
鈥淐hatbots are often doing real-time web search,鈥� Haines said. 鈥淲hen you ask a question, they’re going and searching the web and then putting together an answer for you. And so your race needs to show up as an actual race, and then you need to show up as a candidate.鈥�
That鈥檚 important because chatbots can be really opinionated.
鈥淐hatbots are surprisingly willing to make recommendations to folks on who to vote for, to rank candidates, to differentiate candidates in a race based on issues,鈥� said Haines, making it important to understand how the AI tools gathered the information behind those answers.
鈥淭he optimizing for AI answers is a superset of the things that you need to do to optimize for traditional search,鈥� he explained.
鈥淭hese chatbots are doing traditional search. You have to show up in the traditional search results. But then the content you have in those places really matters because these chatbots are trying to put together a cohesive narrative around your campaign or what’s happening in the race.鈥�
That means campaigns are starting to realize they need to tailor some of the information they post on their websites in better ways.
One example of that, he said, is FAQ type content and policy positions that used to be brief blurbs are now getting far more detailed.
That language then finds its way into the answers being provided by chatbots, which is important to know since news articles behind a paywall might show up high in a traditional Google web search, but are rarely included in answers from chatbots. Local news articles are also more likely to be referenced than a national news source is.
Haines also found you can ask the same questions in different languages and get different answers.
鈥淭here is a big difference,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he sources are different. The answers are different when we translate them and translate them back.
Figuring out why is something he鈥檚 still working on. But the importance of this work has been made clear by the different campaigns utilizing this particular tool.
鈥淲hen they go and knock doors,鈥� Haines explained, 鈥渋t used to be that voters were asking about something they saw go viral on social recently. Like, 鈥楧id you see this? Is it true?鈥� Now they’re saying 鈥楥hatGPT said this about our community or said this about your candidacy. Is that true?鈥�
鈥淪o these campaigns are looking for a way to get ahead of those questions by using Campsight to monitor what ChatGPT and Google AI are saying,鈥� he added.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
漏 2026 海角精品黑料. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
