Kern County voters split on asking AI for help with a long midterm ballot
Before Tuesday's election, some Kern County voters used AI chatbots to research state propositions. Others said they couldn't trust the answers, and a cybersecurity founder urged caution.
Kern County voters split on asking AI for help with a long midterm ballot
Key Takeaways
- Before Tuesday's midterm, some Kern County voters used AI platforms to research a long list of ballot measures, KBAK reported.
- Voter Robert Lima said he doesn't like AI for this because there's no way to confirm what it tells him.
- Ian Marlow, founder of cybersecurity at Fitech, said voters should use AI to gather facts and shouldn't ask it for opinions.
- Marlow said different AI systems can reflect the views of the companies that built them.
Robert Lima didn't trust it.
"AI, I don't like because there's no way you can confirm it," Lima told KBAK in the days before Tuesday's election.
Some of his neighbors felt differently. With a long list of ballot measures in front of them, some Kern County voters turned to artificial intelligence platforms to sort through the information before voting, the Bakersfield station reported. Others shared Lima's doubts about whether a chatbot is the right tool for election research.
What was on the ballot
Kern voters didn't have any county government races this fall. KGET reported those were decided in June, and the countywide ballot had only one item, a measure tied to the CALM Zoo.
The statewide list was longer. Voters were asked to decide on a one-time wealth tax to pay for health care, education and food assistance, a voter ID and citizenship verification measure (Proposition 39) and funding for immunology and immunotherapy research, among other propositions.
Ballots went out to voters Oct. 5, according to KGET. The county elections office, at 1115 Truxtun Ave. in Bakersfield, had 20 drop boxes around the county.
What voters said
A voter identified only as Leon gave AI a qualified yes.
"It can be if it's used properly," he told the station.
Lima wasn't convinced. His concern was less about the technology itself and more about how much bad information people already run into online, and how hard it is to sort out what's real.
What the expert advised
Ian Marlow, whom KBAK identified as an AI expert and founder of cybersecurity at Fitech, said AI should help voters collect information. It shouldn't replace their own judgment.
"AI is not something to ask opinion. It is something to help you gather fact," Marlow said.
Marlow told the station that what people get out of an AI system depends heavily on how they phrase their questions. He also warned that the systems aren't neutral by default. He said many users don't realize that "different AIs made by different software companies express potentially the opinions of others."
For voters who wanted to use AI anyway, Marlow recommended Claude, a chatbot made by the AI company Anthropic. He pointed to a setting that changes how the system responds, including a mode he said can look for connections across several pieces of information that don't appear related.
"There's a little slider when you get into it," Marlow said. He said that in the mode the company calls work, users can ask it in plain conversation how separate pieces of information might relate.
"Those results are amazing to read," he said.
Lima had a simpler reason for staying away.
"There's so many people, you see so much stuff on the internet," he said. "You know that you don't know what to believe anymore."
Central Valley AI is produced by the CVAI Newsdesk team and developed by Kaweah Tech, a regional firm that builds, deploys, and integrates AI solutions for businesses across California's Central Valley.