Does AI help or hurt misinformation?

In 2024, one-third of Americans said they had used a chatbot at least once, and a tiny fraction turned to them for election information. Two years later, roughly half of Americans report using chatbots, with almost one-quarter using them daily. Many users are asking about politics. The 2026 midterms could be called the first chatbot election. So far, there has been little regulation of AI in the United States. First, courts and policymakers must figure out how and under what circumstances to hold AI companies accountable for harms their products cause. Second, though some AI companies appear to have complied with laws requiring watermarks for AI-generated content, there is no explicit requirement in the U.S. that chatbots be able to read those watermarks regardless of which tool created them. That should change. Third, AI companies must allow third-party researchers to perform rigorous, independent studies of AI tools. Finally, academics, journalists and election officials have a role, too. As merchants of disinformation learn to manipulate the bots, it will be increasingly important for chatbots to reliably access information from quality sources.

[Lawrence Norden is the vice president of the elections and government program at the Brennan Center for Justice.]