Can AI vote us a better future?

Instead of watching any debates, attending any rallies or reading any party manifestos, I opened up ChatGPT and asked for summaries.

Within a few minutes I received clean breakdowns of policy propositions, candidate records and all the latest talking points. All of this without the stirring of an emotion.

When AI is able to compare candidates based on its vast knowledge scape, free of any emotional bias, does it mean that it is more accurate than humans at picking the best political outcome?

The Trap of Binary Thinking

Politics, like artificial intelligence, both thrives and suffers under the weight of binary thinking. In local elections, our choices generally are “for” or “against” the incumbent. AI models similarly run on choices between 0s and 1s, yes or no, and true or false.

Binary thinking makes decisions easier and systems more efficient. However, it lacks nuance. Minority choices are

Political Systems

Political systems, like AI models, are ultimately still systems. There are rules and parameters set in place to make sure that there is a sense of order around governance so that power is kept in check.

Just as the parameters of an AI algorithm define its behavior, the architecture of a political system influences what choices feel viable or even imaginable. In a country like Singapore, where efficiency and stability are paramount, the system is calibrated for certainty. Voting then becomes less an act of revolution than a function within a finely tuned machine.

How LLMs make predictions

Large language models like ChatGPT predict instead of thinking. They analyse patterns in vast datasets and choose the most statistically likely next word or idea. But it does not have any direct human experience to draw from, and it lacks genuine originality. Politics is a human and creative endeavour, and political alignment often hins on the hope that something will change for the better. That human aspect of hope is something which AI might not prioritise.

The Right to Be Wrong

That hope can mostly be delusional. But voting is not just about being right. It is about being human. We deserve the right to vote with our hearts as well as our heads, and to make decisions based on our lived experiences rather than optimised outcomes. In a world shaped by algorithms and systems, the simple, irrational, deeply personal act of casting a vote remains one of our most valuable extensions of our imperfections and unpredictability.