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With midterm elections just days away, you might be tempted to ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity about a candidate’s record before heading to the polls. But a new study suggests you should think twice before trusting the answer, even when the chatbot provides sources to back it up.

A report from AI search analytics company Searchable found that roughly one in 12 answers about local political issues contradicted official government data. Of the 7,449 answers researchers evaluated, 610 were false, an 8.2% error rate.

The research examined four popular AI tools: ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode , and Perplexity. The questions covered issues voters regularly consider when evaluating politicians, including crime, housing costs, employment , education and healthcare.

But the most surprising finding wasn’t necessarily how often the chatbots got things wrong.…