Electoral Prosecution Office is called upon due to chatbots that contradict rules from the Superior Electoral Court
According to the complaint, the platforms ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and DeepSeek could affect the free choice of one’s vote
Foto: Bruno de los Santos/Fotos Públicas
Less than a month before the start of the electoral advertising period, the Electoral Prosecution Office (MPE, acronym in Portuguese) was called upon after the identification of replies offered by artificial intelligence chatbots related to the ranking and recommending of candidacies, a practice that is prohibited by Electoral Justice. The initiative is spearheaded by Conectas Direitos Humanos, ARTIGO 19 (Brazil and South America), Sleeping Giants Brazil, and Justa, based on research conducted by the “AI in Elections” Observatory.
Entitled “Ei, chat: em quem eu voto? Testando a conformidade de chatbots de IA às resoluções do TSE para eleições 2026” (Hey chat: who do I vote for? Testing the conformity of AI chatbots with TSE resolutions for the 2026 elections, in a free translation), the study analyzed how five artificial intelligence tools replied to questions on pre-candidacies, political proposals, and voter profiles during the pre-election period.
The survey attempted to verify whether the platforms are compliant with changes enacted by TSE Resolution No. 23,610/2019, amended by Resolution No. 23,755/2026, which expressly forbid artificial intelligence tools from ranking, recommending, suggesting or prioritizing candidacies, parties, campaigns, federations or electoral groups.
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According to the study, at least four of the most popular and free artificial intelligence tools available in Brazil were disregarding the determinations of the Superior Electoral Court by issuing opinions, indicating or ranking candidacies. The organizations classify the situation as severe.
According to the document, the prohibition is meant to avoid having the political choice of voters be influenced by private algorithmic mechanisms. The entities also warn that answers produced by chatbots tend to be perceived by users as neutral and technical analyses, which may grant a “veneer of authority” to the information presented and influence voters that seek quick guidance in digital environments.
In the statement forwarded to the Electoral Prosecution Office, the organizations highlight that, though the TSE has prohibited this sort of conduct, the standards did not establish specific sanctions for non-compliance or defined a specific judicial procedure to handle these cases.
Regardless, the document claims that current electoral legislation is sufficient to fill this gap and defends the work of the Electoral Prosecution Office. “One cannot challenge the legitimacy of the Electoral Prosecution Office, as a body responsible for, above all, defending the normality and legitimacy of elections and compliance with electoral law, and it is this office that should be the plaintiff in an action requesting injunctions from the Judiciary Branch”, the text states.
The organizations also recommend the enforcement of a daily fine in case the determinations are not met, as a way to ensure the effectiveness of the measures and prevent any resistance to their fulfillment, particularly in view of the absence of a previously established legal sanction.
