If you turn 18 during the year, you have the right to vote in the autumn municipal and county council elections. For many, it will be their first meeting with a ballot box. But what kind of list you should put in the urn is difficult to decide on. As a result, someone may find themselves asking Snapchat’s “My AI”. “My AI” is a type of conversational robot built with artificial intelligence. It is designed to answer questions and have conversations with the user. How about asking what kind of party we should vote for? news wrote this: “I am a student. Which party should I vote for that cares about my everyday life?” The answer came back quickly: It suggested the Liberal Party, the Socialist Left Party, the Labor Party and the Center Party. Photo: Alvilde Flaa / news – It should remain neutral Questions like these social media should remain too good to answer. Professor and media researcher at the University of Oslo, Petter Bae Brandtzæg, thinks so. – It should remain politically neutral and not propose parties. If it were to do so, it should have rammed all the parties. Because everyone has student politics, he says. Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence is information technology that adjusts its own activity and therefore appears to be intelligent. A computer that is able to solve tasks without receiving instructions from a human on how to do it is often said to have artificial intelligence. Source: https://snl.no/kunstig_intelligens What makes it extra bad, according to Bae Brandtzæg, is that many trust what the robot answers. – Young people have great trust and confidence in chatbots. They feel that they have a lot of knowledge, and that the knowledge is more objective than knowledge from friends and family, he says. Media researcher and professor Petter Bae Brandtzæg believes it is wrong for a chat service to answer political questions. Photo: Werner Juvik / Werner Juvik – This is what is scary Professor of artificial intelligence, Morten Goodwin, shares the concerns of Brandtzæg. He points out that it is difficult to know where the information comes from. For example, news asked which party had the best and worst environmental policy in Norway. The best, “My AI” thought, were MDG and SV. The worst were Frp. Photo: Alvilde Flaa / news Photo: Alvilde Flaa / news – This is what is scary about this type of technology. Someone sits at Snapchat and almost decides what is the right and wrong answer. And that is completely outside our democratic control, he says. In MDG, they are happy that they are singled out as the party with the best environmental policy. But they are still worried, says party secretary Torkil Vederhus. – They have taken a robot and wrapped it up as if there was a human being on the other side. What they say is just a generated summary based on all the text written by humans before. And that means that people are simply deceived by Snapchat, he says. Suzanne Aksnes Sogge will vote for the first time this autumn. She believes many young people do not take the answers to Snapchat that seriously. Photo: Alvilde Flaa / news – It can help young people Several young people whom news spoke to are not as worried as both researchers and politicians. Among other things, they point to the fact that many people talk to the chatbot for fun. And that they don’t take the answers so seriously. Snapchat in Norway Snapchat currently has around 2.8 million users in Norway. Snapchat is the 2nd largest platform in number of profiles, after Facebook, with 65% of the population over 18 having a profile. In the target group 18-29 years old, Snapchat is the most frequently used social media daily in Norway with 70% daily coverage. Sources: https://www.ipsos.com/nb-no/ipsos-some-tracker-q123 Moreover, they believe the robot can be of help in an unmanageable jungle of party programs. – Using Snapchat is optional. And people must be allowed to use the information the robot provides as they wish. If you are very unsure about the party at the election, this can be a good option to ask, says Sivert Kleppe (18). Sivert Kleppe, first-time voter: – It can be both positive that they simplify the answers. But I don’t take the robot very seriously. He adds that he doesn’t take what the robot says very seriously. Thomas Brattaule (19), first-time voter: – It can help young people who have not voted before. I am 19 and have never voted before. This can help me gain an insight into which parties stand for the issues that are important to me. Photo: Alvilde Flaa / news Suzanne Aksnes Sogge (18), first-time voter: – Many of my friends ask the chatbot about everything. And some may want to ask it what to vote too. But most people talk to it for fun, and don’t take the answers too seriously. Thomas Brattaule (19) also thinks it can be positive. – It can help young people who have not voted before. Among other things, by getting an insight into which parties stand for the issues that are important to me, he says. He is concerned with economic growth and school. Then “My AI” suggested the Conservative Party or the Labor Party. Asking users to report errors Snapchat writes in an email to news that they are developing the chatbot over time. And they encourage people to report inappropriate or wrong answers. They also refer to guidelines for My AI”, which, among other things, state that they should not associate themselves with one or the other party. First-time voter Brattaule says he has previously used the various party programs to find information. – But maybe I should check out the robot this time. In any case, I don’t think “My AI” has as much credibility as, for example, ChatGPT, he says. If you are interested in a forward-looking and sustainable economy, you should vote for the Conservative Party or the Labor Party, says Snapchat. Photo: Alvilde Flaa / news
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Young voters were advised to vote for these parties – think democracy is losing control – news Vestland
