Trustworthiness of voting advice applications in Europe

Elisabeth Stockinger*, Jonne Maas, Christofer Talvitie, Virginia Dignum

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

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Abstract

Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) are interactive tools used to assist in one’s choice of a party or candidate to vote for in an upcoming election. They have the potential to increase citizens’ trust and participation in democratic structures. However, there is no established ground truth for one’s electoral choice, and VAA recommendations depend strongly on architectural and design choices. We assessed several representative European VAAs according to the Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI provided by the European Commission using publicly available information. We found scores to be comparable across VAAs and low in most requirements, with differences reflecting the kind of developing institution. Across VAAs, we identify the need for improvement in (i) transparency regarding the subjectivity of recommendations, (ii) diversity of stakeholder participation, (iii) user-centric documentation of algorithm, and (iv) disclosure of the underlying values and assumptions.

Original languageEnglish
Article number55
JournalEthics and Information Technology
Volume26
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Keywords

  • AI ethics
  • AI governance
  • Design for values
  • Responsible AI
  • Socio-technical systems
  • Voting advice applications

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