Perplexity's Election Tool Gets the Thumbs Up on US Election Night

Perplexity AI launched their ground-breaking Election Information Hub for the US election

February 3, 2025
Matilda French

As Americans headed to the polls for a nail-biting presidential election, Perplexity, a popular AI chatbot, boldly promised to be a reliable source for live election updates.

Perplexity's Election Information Hub aimed to help voters get to grips with key issues and stay up to date with results, stating that “People deserve a clear, easy way to find the information they seek, and few topics are as consequential as elections.”

Despite concerns about AI's tendency to invent facts (known as hallucinating) when unsure, Perplexity managed to avoid any major blunders on election night, offering mostly accurate voting information and updates. Perplexity played it safe by relying on trusted sources like Democracy Works for facts, while live results were sourced through a partnership with the Associated Press.

Other major AI companies took an even more cautious approach. Online tech magazine Wired tested OpenAI's ChatGPT Search and found it often clammed up when asked about voting. Google also steered clear of AI-generated election content, having applied “election-related restrictions” to many of their products.

Forbes found that the opinion of the AI influencers and experts they interviewed on Perplexity’s Election Hub was generally positive, with particular praise for Perplexity’s use of trusted data sources for this initiative. 

However, some like Conor Grennan (chief AI Architect at NYU Stern School of Business) pointed out that "while partnerships with established data providers like AP and Democracy Works should definitely help reduce technical hallucinations, they don't fully address the challenge of perceived bias in presentation", and warned that it's still vitally important for users to cross-check the information they get from AI outputs.

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