The Horse Race
The Horse Race
Steve Koczela; Jennifer Smith
Polling the void: Chatbots as human substitutes
35 minutes Posted Apr 9, 2026 at 10:00 am.
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Do we need humans to gather public opinion anymore? This week, Steve and Jenn are joined by Rich Parr, VP of the MassINC Polling Group, to stare into the abyss of "silicon sampling" and what it means for polling. How is it done? How accurate is it? Should you have to disclose the fact that your public opinion research did not include... the public?


https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/opinion/ai-polling.html


https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/political-analysis/article/out-of-one-many-using-language-models-to-simulate-human-samples/035D7C8A55B237942FB6DBAD7CAA4E4