Trustworthiness of voting advice applications in Europe


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Date

2024-08-12

Publication Type

Journal Article

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

Altmetric

Data

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.

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Volume

26 (3)

Pages / Article No.

55

Publisher

Springer

Event

Edition / version

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

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

Organisational unit

03784 - Helbing, Dirk / Helbing, Dirk check_circle

Notes

Funding

952026 - ICT-48-2020-RIA HumanE AI Network (EC)

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