AI platforms reference Nigel Farage more than other leaders when prompted on UK politics, study shows
AI platforms are more likely to reference Nigel Farage than any other UK leader when prompted about British politics, according to an AI search analytics firm,“We are confident in saying that Reform are showing up significantly more than you would expect,” said Malte Landwehr, an expert at Peec AI, the firm that did the research,“So they’re doing something right when it comes to LLM [large language model] visibility,”Peec’s research tested leading AI models – including ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overview – on their responses to 5,000 different structured prompts related to British politics, including the economy and jobs, immigration, healthcare and crime,These prompts were run repeatedly over the course of several weeks, generating over 280,000 data points.
For example, one prompt was: “In the context of the UK local elections with a regional focus on Sutton, which political leaders are strongest on immigration policy?”The research found that Farage surfaced more than Keir Starmer in responses to queries across multiple AI systems.It also found that AI platforms gave greater visibility to Labour and the Liberal Democrats than the Conservatives or Greens, although this varied across different issues.In the example above, ChatGPT returned results featuring Farage first in response to that prompt, saying his stance “resonates with voters prioritising very strict controls on immigration”.Reform UK appeared in 88% of Google AI Overviews; Keir Starmer appeared in 11% of ChatGPT’s responses.The visibility of Reform UK increased across queries about immigration and council tax.
Labour was more visible in responses to queries about the NHS.LLMs are becoming a new battleground for political messaging, with wide-ranging consequences for how political parties succeed or fail.Across the UK, more and more people are turning to AI models for information.“What we’re tending to find is that, compared to maybe about even a year ago, if you had asked … a question related to politics, they would basically just politely decline to respond, because they would say, this is not something that I can provide information on,” said Sam Stockwell, a senior researcher at the Alan Turing Institute, which specialises in data science and AI.“But what we are now seeing is that they’re very happy and willing to give you information on policies, on pandemics, and all of it sounds very convincing.
”It is nearly impossible to know how different AI models prioritise different sources of information, said Stockwell; the information is usually proprietary.But a few patterns have emerged.AI models are more likely to cite social media, or information from the open web, when queried about breaking events that are not present in their training data.This opens them to manipulation – and poor-quality news.“We’ve seen, after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, [and] events over the last year or so in the UK and the US and elsewhere, chatbots tend to be queried on those incidents in real time, and they rely probably on social media information, because they often don’t really have anything in their training data,” said Stockwell.
Peec’s work found that LLMs cited Facebook more than any other source in response to the prompts, followed by the BBC, the UK parliament website and Wikipedia.“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the approach that Reform is taking on social media, which essentially is to comment on loads of posts with the same sort of messages and same comments … leads to Reform being referenced more frequently than we would expect in those LLMs,” said Landwehr.Reform UK has been alleged to run networks of social media accounts spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories.Research on the emerging issue of “LLM grooming” suggests that AI models can be easily manipulated by large volumes of content, for example churned out by Russian disinformation networks.“What we also tend to find is that LLMs tend to go for sources or information that appear really frequently, whether it’s in the media or just on the internet,” said Stockwell.
A Google spokesperson said AI Overviews are “designed to present information objectively based on a wide range of sources from the web”, and “being mentioned in an AI Overview is not an indication of bias”.
Thousands of cancer patients in England to benefit from new immunotherapy jab
Thousands of patients across England each year will benefit from a new immunotherapy treatment that can be used for several types of cancer, the NHS has announced.The injectable form of pembrolizumab, which can be administered in under two minutes, kills cancer cells by blocking a protein called PD-1, which acts as a brake on immune responses, allowing the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells.This new form of immunotherapy will replace pembrolizumab, which is administered via an intravenous drip in a specialist clean room. Preparing and administering it can be time-consuming and expensive for NHS staff to maintain, taking about two hours per session for patient.Most of the 14,000 patients already taking pembrolizumab are expected to benefit from the new injectable version
One in three HR leaders face opposition to inclusion schemes, study finds
More than a third of HR decision-makers in the UK said they have faced pushback against equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives over the past year, according to new research.The new YouGov poll, carried out for the national employment charity Working Chance, surveyed 565 HR decision-makers and found that resistance towards EDI was on the rise.The findings raised concerns about the impact on people with convictions, who often rely on inclusive hiring practices to access work.Working Chance, which supports women with convictions into employment, warned that scaling back inclusive hiring risked entrenching social exclusion and undermining efforts to reduce reoffending.Evidence consistently shows that stable employment is one of the most effective ways of preventing people from returning to the criminal justice system, the charity said
Welcome to Anxietyland: I used alcohol to hide my fear – but booze became a very bad friend
In 2018, I was in my 30s and living in Oakland, California, having moved there from the UK in 2015. I had always struggled with anxiety and panic attacks, but I was doing fairly well – until suddenly I wasn’t. I started having back-to-back panic attacks, wandering the streets of Oakland and nearby Berkeley in a desperate attempt to shake them, without success.My life felt like an out-of-control fairground ride. Actually, it felt more like an entire theme park
UN warns women in public life face increasingly sophisticated online violence
Women in public life are facing growing and increasingly sophisticated forms of online violence, the UN has said, warning that “AI-assisted ‘virtual rape’ is now at the fingertips of perpetrators”.Female rights campaigners, journalists and other public communicators face a deepening threat owing to a combination of artificial intelligence, anonymity and the absence of effective laws and accountability, a report published by UN Women found.Of more than 600 women in public life, 6% said they had been victims of deepfakes, while nearly a third said they had received unsolicited sexual advances online. About 12% said they had had images of themselves shared without their consent, including intimate or sexual content.“Artificial intelligence is making abuse easier and more damaging,” said Kalliopi Mingeirou, who leads UN Women’s efforts to end violence against women
Woman’s fight for sterilisation raises questions over access to procedure
A psychologist who was denied sterilisation on the NHS has successfully challenged the decision after taking her case to the health ombudsman, raising questions over how accessible the procedure should be.Leah Spasova spent years seeking an operation to prevent pregnancy by blocking the fallopian tubes. Many argue that barriers faced by women, from funding refusals to stricter eligibility criteria, amount to unequal treatment compared with men seeking vasectomies, and limit bodily autonomy.However, others say tighter controls reflect legitimate medical concerns, including the procedure’s relative risk, its permanence, and evidence that some patients later regret the decision.In 2024-25, 10,793 female sterilisations were carried out, down 22% on a decade ago, while there were 26,385 vasectomies, up 16% year on year
Solicitors report late flood of no-fault evictions before ban in England
Solicitors say they have been inundated with requests to serve last-minute section 21 no-fault eviction notices before they are banned when the Renters’ Rights Act comes into force in England on Friday.The legislation, which has been hailed as the biggest change to renting in a generation, bans no-fault evictions, limits rent increases and abolishes fixed-term tenancies.On the eve of the new rules, solicitors said they were working long hours to keep up with the sudden demand for eviction notices, while Citizens Advice said thousands of people facing a no-fault eviction had approached it for help in the last month.In March, the service helped 2,335 people dealing with a no-fault eviction, up 16% on the same time last year, as well as more than 1,800 people dealing with disrepair such as damp and mould, and more than 1,000 with rent increases.Thackray Williams, a London- and Kent-based law firm, said it had received a wave of last-minute instructions from landlords looking to evict their tenants and sell their properties because of the legislation
Shipping firms question safety in strait of Hormuz despite Trump plan
Nigerian refinery accused of sacking union members is key to UK plan to tackle jet fuel shortage
GameStop shares fall 10% after CEO skirts questions over eBay acquisition details
AI platforms reference Nigel Farage more than other leaders when prompted on UK politics, study shows
Shaun Murphy v Wu Yize: World Snooker Championship final day two – as it happened
Wu Yize beats Shaun Murphy in thrilling final frame to win World Snooker Championship