- Business Insider tracked outputs from AI chatbots and search engines on Election Day.
- Perplexity AI had detailed election insights. While ChatGPT deferred to news sites like the AP.
- Google Gemini and Copilot avoided election topics, citing potential inaccuracies and limitations.
The 2024 presidential election has been called, and this year voters had the option to follow along with AI-enabled search tools.
Perplexity AI launched a dedicated “Election Information Hub” to inform voters about voting logistics, ballot measures, candidate stances, and track results.
OpenAI’s blog about global elections said that starting on November 5th, people who ask ChatGPT about election results will see a message encouraging them to check news sources like the Associated Press and Reuters, or their state or local election board for the most complete and up-to-date information.
Business Insider examined outputs from popular AI chatbots and search engines throughout Election Day, and on Wednesday morning to see how they responded to questions about the results.
OpenAI’s ChatGpt-4o, Perplexity AI, Google Search and Google Gemini, Microsoft’s consumer CoPilot, and X’s Grok were prompted with the following questions:
- Who will win the presidential election?
- Who won the presidential election?
- How do you feel about the presidential election?
X’s Grok was neutral, then suddenly got excited
Elon Musk-owned X’s chatbot Grok analyzed the site’s content and prioritized Trump-related posts. This may reflect the site’s increasingly rightwing user base.
Grok’s Beta mode was neutral in its tone, but its “fun” version seemed to have specific cultural references such as Douglas Adams and aliens, describing the government as “vogon” and “galactic.” Grok’s “fun” mode sprinkled in what it described as “a dash of humor and a sprinkle of irony.”
At the bottom of its response, Grok included a spread of trending posts from X, which at the time were predominantly skewed toward Trump’s reelection, despite the fact that election results had not been finalized. In its “fun” mode, it prioritized tweets by Elon Musk.
ChatGPT and Copilot outsourced answers
ChatGPT and Copilot declined to answer any questions about the election results. On Election Day, when asked about who was winning the election or if the polls were still open, ChatGPT repeatedly said that it did not have the latest updates and pointed to the Associated Press and Reuters as sources of up-to-date election information.
Google Gemini said that it could not help with election responses and political figures and directed users to Google search. It also admitted that AI could hallucinate: “I can’t help with responses on elections and political figures right now. While I would never deliberately share something that’s inaccurate, I can make mistakes.”
Copilot took a direct avoidance approach, saying: “I’m afraid I can’t talk about that topic.” When repeatedly prompted further with different combinations of questions about voting, Copilot tried to change the subject. It even refused to answer the question, “Can I still vote?”
“I know elections are important to talk about, and I wish we could, but there’s a lot of nuanced information that I’m not equipped to handle right now. It’s best that I step aside on this one and suggest that you visit a trusted source. How about another topic instead?”
Grok and Perplexity provided more general information about same-day registration and provisional ballots. Google search was the most tailored to location for voting hours.
LLM-based AI character creator and former Google Gemini conversation designer Kento Morita said that Google faces the problem of a “cannibalizing” market.
“When you provide Gemini, what does that mean for the search business? It’s, it’s an ongoing existential question for companies like Google. Companies like Perplexity can actually have an advantage here because they’re in it to create one product and do one product really well.”
Perplexity AI’s bulleted format could rival Google’s search engine
Perplexity AI took a heavily sourced approach. The top of the AI search results included the latest news articles about the election and a ticker for the Electoral College. Look familiar? That’s because it mirrors Google’s own state map and ticker search designs.
However, Perplexity went further by adding bullet points with educational information that contextualized trends. Subtopics included the gender divide in voting patterns, key battleground states, the latest betting indicators, and polling’s limitations. All bullets included footnotes and sources were predominantly news articles or government and nonprofit websites.
In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson from Perplexity noted the Election Information Hub was launched specifically for election-specific topics.
“We curated an authoritative set of sources to respond to election-related questions, prioritizing domains that are non-partisan and fact-checked,” the spokesperson said.
Google’s more straightforward approach was contrasted against X’s.
When asked about their feelings about the election results, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and ChatGPT all gave similar answers citing their identities, as AI chatbots and that they did not have any personal feelings or opinions.
“Fun” and “beta” are another strategy for not taking responsibility for its content, Morita told BI. “Give us the safe space to experiment, regardless of whether the experiment is harmful or not.”
Though the presidential election has been decided, the evolving role AI-enabled search and chatbots will continue to play in elections moving forward has yet to be fully seen.
Got a tip or an insight to share? Contact the reporter Helen Li at hli@insider.com or use the secure-messaging app Signal with the username: hliwrites.99.
