In a few weeks, the federal election will take place, and many people are wondering which party best represents their personal interests. The election programs offer detailed information, but who has the time to read hundreds of pages? In addition to the established Wahl-O-Mat, there is a new AI-supported tool this year: Wahl.Chat. Here, anyone can interact with the parties’ election programs and quickly get answers to individual questions.
Wahl.Chat was developed by a team of German students from the University of Cambridge. In a deep dive of the AI update, two of them, Michel Schimpf and Robin Frasch, discuss the creation, functionality, and goals of their project.
Technology in the Service of Democracy
The idea for Wahl.Chat came from the developers’ own experience with Wahl-O-Mat. “We had the problem that when we used Wahl-O-Mat, some of the theses either didn’t concern us or we thought, I would have to research that first,” explains Michel Schimpf. Wahl.Chat aims to fill this gap and give voters the opportunity to get targeted information on the topics that personally interest them. They don’t have to disclose personal data for this.
The tool is based on the AI models GPT-4o and -4o Mini from OpenAI. The students fed these models with the existing election programs of the parties. The AI searches these documents and provides relevant answers to users’ questions. “We instruct the AI model to answer this question neutrally based on the provided documents, without using evaluative adjectives and without giving election recommendations,” emphasizes Schimpf. To ensure the accuracy of the answers, the sources of the information are transparently provided.
If users wish, they can also have the parties’ positions categorized. The AI answer engine Perplexity AI is used for this. It searches current media sources of high journalistic and scientific quality and generates a short feasibility analysis from them, explains Frasch: “For example, what could it look like if this policy is implemented in this form? And what possible short-term and long-term consequences will directly affect society?” Those interested in how the parties actually behave can also look at the voting behavior in the Bundestag on the topics. “Our goal is to get as close as possible to real political events.”
Goals and Future of Wahl.Chat
The creators of Wahl.Chat see their project as a work in progress. “We welcome any feedback,” emphasizes Schimpf. Currently, the election programs of the eight largest parties in Germany are available. As soon as smaller parties publish their election programs, they will be included in the tool. Around 50,000 people have already used Wahl.Chat. The project is financed through donations. Although the tool is currently being developed alongside other activities, the students hope to possibly continue Wahl.Chat beyond the federal election.