The Candidate Would Like To Be Your Answer

The old campaign ad interrupted your research. The new ambition is to become the research, then congratulate you on making an informed choice.

Reuters examined a strategy proposed for Massachusetts Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Minogue that would seed AI-friendly policy pages and paid placements on sites chatbots cite. The aim was to improve how those systems describe and recommend him. The campaign did not respond to Reuters. A proposal is not proof that it was implemented or that a chatbot was successfully manipulated.

Still, the pitch identifies a rather lovely business opportunity: sell the candidate a megaphone, then arrange for the megaphone to introduce itself as the librarian.

Voters know a campaign wants their vote. A yard sign has the good manners to remain a yard sign. It doesn't climb down from the lawn, put on reading glasses and explain that, after considering the available evidence, it has independently concluded the fellow on the sign is terrific.

The awkward part is that making accurate information easy to find is useful. Candidates should explain their policies. Voters should be able to locate those explanations. The trouble begins when success is measured by securing a recommendation rather than improving the information behind it. You can optimize the route to an answer without improving the answer's relationship to reality.

Reuters also describes services for progressive candidates. This is not a technological original sin confined to one party. The temptation is available to anyone with a campaign account and a consultant prepared to invoice for the future.

Nor does the reporting establish that chatbots swallow whatever they are fed. One progressive-side practitioner told Reuters the systems had been better at distinguishing reliable material than he had feared. There is room between complacency and announcing that the robots have already stolen the election.

What voters deserve is a visible trail back to the evidence and the people trying to influence it. A confident answer should not get a free pass because it has excellent punctuation.

When the campaign message comes back wearing a research assistant's badge, check who paid for the lanyard.