Some Denver high school kids from mostly immigrant families have created an artificial intelligence app to help their parents and people like them vote. It makes the process easy – how to record and interpret ballot issues.
Joanna Summers, host:
Voting in the United States can be complicated, especially for newly naturalized citizens whose first language is not English. Some Denver high school students, many from immigrant families, are trying to help, and they have harnessed the power of artificial intelligence. Experts applaud their efforts even if there is still concern about the accuracy of the AI. Colorado Public Radio’s Jenny Brunden visited their classroom.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I want you to go make a voting plan.
JENNIE BRONDIN, BYLINE: The students at DSST College View are 97% students of color — most of them Hispanic, some Vietnamese. In civics class, after researching who votes and who doesn’t, they wanted to do a project to help people who are less likely to vote. Many have naturalized parents, but are intimidated by the voting process. Daisy Quintana says young people are attracted to technology.
Daisy Quintana: We were talking about how many people who don’t vote have the ability to vote. So I feel like this encouraged us to create this app that can help others want to vote and vote.
BRONDIN: The English version of Colorado’s voter guide is 122 pages this year. There is a Spanish-language version, but students say the technical language is confusing. It is out of reach, especially for young people and their family members. They wanted to build a simple way to engage disenfranchised voters in multiple languages.
Juan Cruz Minero: This is the place where he tells you that you can start your journey here.
BRONDIN: Juan Cruz Minero showed me the front page of their app, called VoteWise Colorado. Students were divided into work groups, such as quality control or technical architecture. They built the app and accompanying chatbot with their mentor and industry partner from Tinman Kinetics. I start asking questions.
Am I registered to vote?
Juan writes into the robot. Me too.
Cruz Minero: Well, it gives us the link to GoVoteColorado.
BRONDIN: This is the official Colorado government website. Ask about individual ballot procedures.
Cruz Minero: Proposition 129 is about creating professional partners in veterinary medicine.
Bronden: The answers are clear and easy to understand. In the wider world, experts say going to one of the big chatbots to get voter information is not a good idea. They can give you incorrect or biased information depending on how you phrase your question. Virginia Tech Professor Casey Myers.
Kayce Myers: As we know with everything AI related, there is real due diligence on the part of users to verify and verify what they are told.
BRONDEN: Jim Martin, a computer scientist at the University of Colorado, is concerned about chatbots oversimplifying the pros and cons listed in the state’s voter guide.
Jim Martin: OpenAI decided that this was a good paraphrase to make it shorter or more detailed. And you don’t know whether this is consistent with legislative intent or not.
BRONDIN: But Myers says it appears the students designed their app and bots responsibly with good safeguards. Student Angel Garcia.
Angel Garcia: Bots like this – we’ve trained them on what’s inside the actual documents, and I feel like it’s a safer way to understand what’s going on.
Bronden: They used a platform called Playlab, which is a nonprofit that gives teachers access to large language AI models with built-in guardrails. They followed the National Safety Principles for Educators Working with AI, which included high motivation and training focused on obtaining objective information for voters from official agencies. sources. Students say they know the risks of AI, but they also see it as a way to address a problem they see in their communities. Hector Sanchez Ruiz.
Hector Sanchez Ruiz: I want to connect more people, to let them know that their voices really matter and that they should be heard.
Bronden: After all this work, the kids are looking forward to learning tomorrow’s election results just like everyone else. For NPR News, I’m Jenny Brunden.
(SOUNDBITE OF QUINCY JONES’ “GHANA”)
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