Latest news with #Wahl-O-Mat
Euronews
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
German AI chatbot seeks to make it easier for voters to decide who to vote for
This weekend, around 60 million Germans are being called to vote. However, according to surveys, around 30% are still undecided as to who they should vote for on Sunday. Tools such as Wahl-O-Mat, which provides users with a political quiz before giving an answer at the end, are particularly helpful for them. They help in ascertaining which political parties and their corresponding programmes best align with their own values. In addition to Wahl-O-Mat, there is now another way to find out about government programmes, but without having to read hundreds of pages. is an AI-supported chatbot developed by a group of German doctoral students at the renowned British University of Cambridge. Their goal: to make politics more accessible and provide voters with simple guidance. Euronews spoke to Michel Schimpf, one of the developers, about how to make a political chatbot apolitical and how to get voters interested in politics. How did the development of the chatbot come about? We are a five-member German team that came to Cambridge University to conduct research together. Like many others at the moment, we probably talk a lot about politics over lunch. We thought about how we could make a small contribution to that. Then we came up with the election and just started programming. We launched the bot just under a month ago. Since then, everything has gone pretty quickly. How does the chatbot work? If users have questions about a particular party and want to know: "Okay, what does party X say about education policy now, for example?" Then you can go to the chatbot and select the party and ask about it. Other examples can be, what do you want to do for better education? Or, sow do you want to boost the economy? And then our chatbot gives an answer based on the parties' election programmes. You can also click on several parties and compare them. If you tried to open five election programmes at the same time, for example, it would take quite a lot of time. With our chatbot, you can simply ask about the topics that interest you personally. So the aim was to make decision-making easier for potential voters? Exactly. In general, we are trying to make politics a bit more transparent. How was the chatbot generally received? Very well. Of course, you also get feedback and some things don't work that well yet. Generally, we can say that the response is really extremely good. We also hear from teachers, for example, that are using the tool during their classes to prepare for the election with their pupils. We also hear from politicians who are using it to better understand the election programmes of other parties. Some even use it to better understand their own election programmes. Given that such documents can be 100 pages long or more, it's not that easy. What is the long-term goal? We are incorporating more and more sources. We will also include the speeches made by politicians recently in the chatbot. There are simply so many sources of political information and virtually nobody can keep track of all of them, even people who do this full-time. We want to create a way for people to find out about politics in a more personalised and easier way. What is your relationship with AI in general? Well, I'm doing a PHD on AI in psychology and all the people who are in the team with me are doing research with me. And we have also used AI before, in very critical areas such as psychological interventions. We therefore already have a lot of experience. What are the potential applications of AI in political decision-making? There are plenty of possibilities. The most important thing is to create transparency. The Bundestag speeches, for example, are all transcribed and there is a huge amount of information and certainly a lot of valuable things in there. Who has the time to read through all that, though? With our chatbot, it will be much easier at some point. Isn't it a difficult goal to keep a chatbot 100% objective? That's true. But you also have to say, what are the alternatives? News isn't always completely objective either - so if you go on Facebook or X, they're not objective. Overall, you always need your own common sense. You have to see what the sources look like. We make that possible, too. With us, you can click directly on the sources and see what's really in the election programmes. This is a problem with AI, which we certainly have, but I think it will be much less of a problem than with other sources. If the bot was biased, that would be problematic. How do you deal with this in the programming? Our AI is basically instructed not to use any judgemental adjectives and to work based on sources. And then you can get to the source with one click. There is research on this. The models partly adopt the characteristics of the underlying data, but it's very difficult to say at the moment if something is more left-wing or more right-wing. The model is instructed to be as objective as possible. I think that works very well. If you try it out, it's very rational. In my opinion, you could make it a lot more sensationalised. I think it works well the way it is now. What does the future hold for your chatbot? The AI models that already exist are good enough to do almost anything with. We don't feel limited by that. The only problem is that it's extremely expensive. I think you can see on our website that it costs us around €250 a day to run. But that's a bit out of date. The costs are now closer to €500. Some days, it's even more expensive. That's our biggest problem right now. Should the model be expanded beyond Germany? We're giving it a lot of thought. People have already written to me saying: "I came to Germany from country X and I think it would be quite relevant in my country, too." There are also people who have asked us about translation into other languages. We think that a tool like this chatbot is definitely needed in democracy. You can do a lot of good with it. That's why we can imagine continuing with it.
Khaleej Times
16-02-2025
- Politics
- Khaleej Times
Don't know who to vote for? Germany has an app for that: The Wahl-O-Mat
Voting can be confusing, especially for young people casting their ballots for the first time, but in Germany they have an app to guide them through the democratic ritual: the Wahl-O-Mat. Also available online, the digital tool's name translates roughly to the "voting machine" and has been a hit since its inception more than two decades ago. Seasoned political geeks too confess they await it like the new edition of a video game, with nine million people using it the day this year's version was launched, a new record. The Wahl-O-Mat guides users through the thicket of Germany's current political headaches and the various parties' answers to them in the form of a political quiz that spits out a result at the end. This year, it offers 38 statements ranging from "all motorways should have a speed limit" to "Germany should continue to support Ukraine militarily". Users click their way through it and respond with the options "agree", "no strong opinion" and "disagree", allowing the algorithm to gauge their political preferences. Other proposals range from ditching the euro currency and reversing Germany's nuclear power phase-out to installing cameras with facial recognition software at train stations. At the end, voters can boost the weighting of issues they feel strongly about before the Wahl-O-Mat presents an answer, suggesting the party that best matches their beliefs. Many say it is useful to guide them through the lineup of 29 parties asking for their vote -- a head-spinning list that can be scaled down to those now represented in parliament. "I have used it in every election I have participated in so far," Thure Kulesa, a 21-year-old university student in Cologne, told AFP. "It allows me to confirm the impressions I have of a party, and I also do it out of curiosity." - Developed 'in record time' - Ahead of this election, to be held on February 23, Kulesa was not surprised by the result he got. "The parties that were at the top of the list were the ones I expected," he said. Out of the full party list, his top-ranked were the Pirates, who campaign for online rights and political transparency, while among the major parties, his outlook was best matched by the centre-left Social Democrats and Greens. The Wahl-O-Mat was launched by the federal agency for political education ahead of the 2002 vote and the number of users has grown with each electoral cycle, topping 21 million last time around in 2021. The questions are drawn up by a team of 38 university experts, employees at the agency and a panel of 24 young voters, who are the target audience. The manifesto positions registered in the Wahl-O-Mat were also sent to the parties to be checked. The original manifesto quiz was inspired by a similar project in the Netherlands, and many democracies now have similar offerings. The new Wahl-O-Mat this year had to be pulled together "in record time", said the head of the federal agency for political education, Thomas Krueger. The haste was due to the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government in November and the announcement that elections would be held about half a year ahead of schedule. Normally, said Krueger, the team takes nine months to prepare the release of a new Wahl-O-Mat.
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Don't know who to vote for? Germany has an app for that: the Wahl-O-Mat
Voting can be confusing, especially for young people casting their ballots for the first time, but in Germany they have an app to guide them through the democratic ritual: the Wahl-O-Mat. Also available online, the digital tool's name translates roughly to the "voting machine" and has been a hit since its inception more than two decades ago. Seasoned political geeks too confess they await it like the new edition of a video game, with nine million people using it the day this year's version was launched, a new record. The Wahl-O-Mat guides users through the thicket of Germany's current political headaches and the various parties' answers to them in the form of a political quiz that spits out a result at the end. This year, it offers 38 statements ranging from "all motorways should have a speed limit" to "Germany should continue to support Ukraine militarily". Users click their way through it and respond with the options "agree", "no strong opinion" and "disagree", allowing the algorithm to gauge their political preferences. Other proposals range from ditching the euro currency and reversing Germany's nuclear power phase-out to installing cameras with facial recognition software at train stations. At the end, voters can boost the weighting of issues they feel strongly about before the Wahl-O-Mat presents an answer, suggesting the party that best matches their beliefs. Many say it is useful to guide them through the lineup of 29 parties asking for their vote -- a head-spinning list that can be scaled down to those now represented in parliament. "I have used it in every election I have participated in so far," Thure Kulesa, a 21-year-old university student in Cologne, told AFP. "It allows me to confirm the impressions I have of a party, and I also do it out of curiosity." - Developed 'in record time' - Ahead of this election, to be held on February 23, Kulesa was not surprised by the result he got. "The parties that were at the top of the list were the ones I expected," he said. Out of the full party list, his top-ranked were the Pirates, who campaign for online rights and political transparency, while among the major parties, his outlook was best matched by the centre-left Social Democrats and Greens. The Wahl-O-Mat was launched by the federal agency for political education ahead of the 2002 vote and the number of users has grown with each electoral cycle, topping 21 million last time around in 2021. The questions are drawn up by a team of 38 university experts, employees at the agency and a panel of 24 young voters, who are the target audience. The manifesto positions registered in the Wahl-O-Mat were also sent to the parties to be checked. The original manifesto quiz was inspired by a similar project in the Netherlands, and many democracies now have similar offerings. The new Wahl-O-Mat this year had to be pulled together "in record time", said the head of the federal agency for political education, Thomas Krueger. The haste was due to the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government in November and the announcement that elections would be held about half a year ahead of schedule. Normally, said Krueger, the team takes nine months to prepare the release of a new Wahl-O-Mat. clp/sea/fz/sbk
Local Germany
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Local Germany
Wahl-o-Mat: The online tool that can help you pick a party in the German elections
If you're a freshly naturalised German citizen, it's understandable if you aren't sure which party to vote for in the coming national election. Even long-time German voters have been known to express overwhelm about electing parties to the Bundestag – after all, there are at least 29 of them in the running. For this reason Federal and State Centres for Civic Education in Germany have created the Wahl-O-Mat, an online interactive tool that offers guidance to voters about which parties could be aligned with their interests. Whether you're an amateur expert on German politics, or can't be bothered to learn what all those three letter abbreviations mean (CDU, SPD, FDP, AfD, BSW etc.), it's worth taking a look at the Wahl-O-Mat. You might just be surprised to learn which parties best reflect your views. What is the Wahl-O-Mat? Wahl is the German word for 'choice', and within the context of elections it means 'vote'. So the Wahl-O-Mat is a Vote-O-Mat, or an automatic voting guide. The Wahl-O-Mat was introduced by the Federal Centre for Political Education (bpb) in 2002, and since then it's regularly updated and made available for national, state and European elections in Germany. Ahead of national snap elections on February 23rd, the Wahl-O-Mat 2025 has been made available online on February 6th. (You can find it here.) How does it work? Using the Wahl-O-Mat is as easy as taking an online quiz. You'll be presented with a thesis, which could be something like 'Germany should continue to support Ukraine militarily' or 'Germany should continue to promote the recruitment of skilled workers from abroad'. You can choose 'agree' (stimme zu), 'neutral' or 'disagree' (stimme nicht zu) for each thesis; or you can skip it. A person stands in front of a laptop on which one of 38 questions from the Wahl-O-Mat can be seen. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Hannes P Albert If a particular issue is more important to you, you can emphasise it by assigning it heavier weighting. After you've marked your opinion on 38 theses, you'll see your results. Parties are scored on their agreement with your answers: when you and a party agree on a thesis they get two points, when you are neutral and they agree they get one point, and when you and the party disagree they get no points. Based on their scores, you can see which parties have higher or lower agreement with you. Note that the Wahl-O-Mat is a German-language tool, but you can effectively use it in English with any browser that translates websites. Other resources for informing your vote The Wahl-O-Mat is intended to offer voters' a general idea about which parties are aligned with their interests, and it's generally understood to do a pretty good job. But it has also been criticised – in part because distilling complex topics into simple theses to agree/disagree with doesn't always do justice to how parties work on issues. There are some alternatives to the Wahl-O-Mat to be found. For example, the which operates in a similar way but suggests that its based on how parties have voted in the Bundestag (as opposed to what they say in their campaigns). In addition to using tools like the Wahl-O-Mat, you may also want to do some reading about the parties or issues you're interested in. Election posters for the Social Democrats (SPD), Left Party, and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) parties are displayed at the side of the road in Nauen, Brandenburg. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Kay Nietfeld And we've taken a look at how these parties plan to address certain issues like rent and housing, immigration and citizenship and the economy and jobs. One last resource that could be good to be aware of is the results page of the last Bundestag election in 2021. For the informed voters who want to be strategic, you can find the results from your state to get a sense of which parties got the most support four years ago versus which failed to make it to the Bundestag. This could be helpful, for example, if you're interested in voting for a minority party and want to check which has the best chance of getting five percent or winning a mandate.
Euronews
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Q&A: Ukraine's ambassador to Germany calls for 'courage' as war enters third year
Germany's election is less than two weeks away, with topics like migration dominating debates. But one issue seems to have been somewhat overlooked in recent weeks: Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since the start of the full-scale war, Germany has pledged to stand firmly by Ukraine's side, providing military, financial, and humanitarian aid. In the first TV debate between SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz and Friedrich Merz of the CDU, however, Ukraine played a secondary role behind topics such as migration and domestic security. While Germany's support was emphasised, both ruled out the country's NATO membership during the ongoing war. Euronews sat down with Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, at the Ukrainian embassy in Berlin to ask him to assess how Germany stands by Ukraine, the merits of using the term 'hybrid warfare' — and why the war should matter more in the run-up to the snap elections on 23 February. Euronews: The grim milestone of three years since Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine is only a few weeks away. How has Germany progressed in these three years and does Germany really stand behind Ukraine? Makeiev: I've been the ambassador to Germany since October 2022, and I'd say Germany has come a long way in these years. We still remember the 5,000 helmets and the widespread restraint across all political parties. Now, two and a half years later, Germany has become our second most important and second-largest military supporter. My president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, recently said that 16 per cent of our military aid comes from Germany. That has been my message from the start: every German can be proud of what the country has done so far. A broad consensus has long been established among the democratic parties that supporting us Ukrainians is in Germany's interest. With few exceptions, almost all politicians say Ukraine must be enabled to win this war in order to achieve a just peace. A recent survey shows 67 per cent of Germans still support arms deliveries and military aid. This proves that the issue remains an important one for voters. Euronews: Looking at the election campaign right now, that doesn't seem to be the case, though. In my point of view, support for Ukraine seems to have faded into the background. Makeiev: In this short election campaign, some politicians may think it's far too complicated to talk about war and peace. But it was a revelation for me when the Wahl-O-Mat (an online tool that has been helping voters make election decisions run by Germany's Federal Agency for Civic Education) was launched, and the very first question was about supporting Ukraine. This is a topic that only courageous and responsible politicians are willing to address. If we consider the interests of German voters and the political support among democrats, it becomes clear how much of a threat Russia poses to the security of Germany, Europe, and the free world. That's why it should be part of the election debate. And, of course, the link to migration exists as well. What triggered the arrival of over a million Ukrainians in Germany? It was Russia's war. So stopping this war is necessary to curb migration. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy has made it clear that if Germany were to stop supporting Ukraine and leave it to fend for itself, it would be 10 to 20 times more costly. These are the key messages I try to spread wherever I travel around Germany. And I have to say, there hasn't been a single event where this support was truly called into question. There have been many critical questions, but by explaining the issue to people, you bring them along. That was also my offer to all parties: put Ukraine on the agenda. It's important, it's not toxic — it's simply being honest with your voters. Euronews: You mentioned critical questions. Do you remember an example? Makeiev: One question I've been asked is: What does winning and ending the war mean to you? I always say that Russia must withdraw completely from all of Ukraine. Then, from the back of the room, someone will say: "Oh, be realistic — Russia will never leave Ukraine!" How do you respond to that? The argument often follows that this is Ukraine's problem. But how would you react if criminals attacked your home, your family, your children? Of course, you would call the police. Should they then reply, "Be realistic"? Euronews: Do you think the scale of crimes committed by Russian forces is fully understood? For example, in recent days, there have been increasing reports of Ukrainian POWs being executed. Makeiev: All these images and videos are deeply traumatic, even for Ukrainians. Our psychologists advise against watching execution footage on social media, as it can be extremely damaging. When I show my acquaintances here videos of shelling or the aftermath of attacks on my friends' homes, many say they don't want to see it. To me, that's a sign that these crimes are being deliberately suppressed. But repression never works in the long run, and pushing this issue out of political discourse and public awareness does little to help. Euronews: And who bears the responsibility—the government or the press? Makeiev: My favourite word is "leadership." From the start, I've wanted the Duden (dictionary) to name it word of the year one day. That said, I'm satisfied with the German media coverage. Nearly three years after the full-scale invasion began, Ukraine is still reported on daily — if not on the front page, then somewhere in the news. And, of course, there are politicians who have visited Ukraine multiple times and speak clearly, without making excuses to justify passivity or excessive caution. But in other areas, such as culture or science, that's not yet the case. I've spoken to many scientists who tell me their work has nothing to do with the war. In my view, this comes down to people not wanting to acknowledge the war and its crimes. Have they ever asked themselves whether continued collaboration might be downplaying war crimes? Euronews: Do you sometimes get the impression that in certain areas, people are just waiting for the war to end so they can go back to business? Makeiev: What's particularly concerning is that some business representatives seem to be dreaming of the day they can resume trade with Russia once it's all over. This downplaying of war crimes — and, in turn, of their own values — is deeply troubling. Once again: we are all against war. But one side is waging it. Germans have experienced first hand what it means to take responsibility for decades after a war. In my view, that isn't happening in Russia at all. It's not enough to simply be against the war—you also have to take responsibility. Euronews: You've said that Europe needs courage. Is Europe courageous? Makeiev:** It doesn't look that way. Bold decisions need to be made — and that comes at a cost. Leaders must also have the courage to communicate this clearly to voters and society. Unfortunately, aid has often been given "for as long as necessary" and "as much as we think is reasonable" — but not "as much as is needed." The real issue is holding those responsible for this war to account. We've defined our end goal: all of us want Russia to stop killing us, for the occupied territories and people to be freed, and for the war to end justly. Only then can the process of reckoning and rebuilding begin. How do we achieve this? For one, through real economic sanctions, by seizing Russian assets—without excuses, without claiming it's too complicated for Europe's financial markets. Who will pay for reconstruction? It cannot be German taxpayers footing the bill while Russia gets away with it. Euronews: There's often talk that Russia is already waging a hybrid war against the West. Just last week, reports surfaced about possible Russian sabotage targeting the Greens. Is this threat being taken seriously? Makeiev: I would suggest moving away from the term "hybrid warfare". Today, the word "hybrid" is either misunderstood or deliberately used to downplay the reality of war. Euronews: So, would you say that Russia is already at war with the West? Makeiev: Yes. Russia is waging war against Germany — by assassinating people in Berlin's Tiergarten park, interfering in elections, committing suspected arson, launching cyberattacks on energy infrastructure, and possibly even attempting to assassinate German defence executives like Mr Papperger. Russia is waging war against the West, yet many fail to see it — or lack the courage to acknowledge and confront it. But Russia is saying it openly: "We are at war with the West." What's missing is courageous politicians who will address this issue with clear language, bring it into their parties' internal debates, and ultimately incorporate it into their programmes. The topic of war is unpopular—or at least seen as such by politicians who don't want to scare the public. But the truth must be recognised and spoken aloud: that's precisely why we need to invest far more in our own security. Of course, people want to talk about pensions and prices. But an honest dialogue with voters must also include the reality of war.
