Technology is known for helping us in virtually every aspect of our lives. Although there’s one area where it doesn’t seem to permeate quite as much: politics. While it’s fair to say some countries have embraced technology in the political sphere, giving citizens the chance to cast electronic ballots in elections in places like India, Venezuela and Brazil – and even in the United States, Canada and France, although only in certain places – in Spain, there’s still no reliable system for people to vote legally through standardised telematic channels for things like Congress, the Senate or their city councils. 

However, thanks to the work of Spanish artificial intelligence developers, at the country’s next general election set for 23 July, at least voters will find it easier to get to grips with what the main parties are offering, with just a few small caveats.

Two apps based on Open AI and ChatGPT artificial intelligence

It’s said that any responsible citizen should thoroughly inspect the programme for government of all parties before exercising their democratic right to vote. In reality, only a tiny percentage of voters ever read the party manifestos, mainly because they’re long, tedious documents that cover a multitude of topics and use language that – although it does its job from a political marketing point of view – is usually pretty vague, generous with the truth or, at the other extreme, too jargon-heavy or technical to be even understood by most ordinary people. 

Artificial intelligence can greatly simplify the job of sifting through these impenetrable documents. In Spain, two initiatives have looked to the same technology, which incidentally makes ChatGPT possible, to provide this service.

Chat Elecciones.

This is an app created by siblings Marta and Javier Soto, in partnership with Luis Cornago. Marta is a software developer and has previously worked for Google. Her brother, Javier, is an entrepreneur specialising in design and innovation, while Cornago is a political scientist. Using artificial intelligence, their app compares all the manifestos on key issues, such as social policy, immigration, climate change and economics. But it’s not just what they’ve written down officially in their manifestos, the tool also compares what the parties have said on these issues in public up to 2021.

ProgramIA.

Created by startup Newtral, this app specialises in fact-checking what’s in the public domain. Based on artificial intelligence, it’s the natural evolution of a bot that was made available at the last general election in 2019, but now allows users to compare the manifestos of the four main political parties. Pablo Álvarez Graña, Technology Manager at Newtral, says that “in the year of generative artificial intelligence, we had to be able to quickly combine these programs”.

A step in the right direction for artificial intelligence, but there’s still a long way to go

Like any AI-based tool, both developments are subject to potential failures or aberrations. On both apps, the developers recommend asking the tool questions in language as natural and organic as possible, as if you were talking to a friend in the room.

In the case of Chat Elecciones, Marta Soto recognises that the app was “purely experimental, we created it for the fun of it”. Although they continue to work to fine-tune the app and iron out any ideological bias that might be present, Soto claims that “artificial intelligence has infinite potential. Right now, we’re interested in people making the effort to compare and contrast”.