Season 8, Post 28: Computer says yes*

Politicians around the world are having a hard time of it. Your author’s home country, the United Kingdom, is now onto its seventh Prime Minister in the space of a decade. One of the current PM's predecessors served in the role for just 45 days. To distrust politicians, however, is one thing. To believe that AI chatbots are now more trustworthy than elected representatives is quite another.

At least you can relax if you’re a family doctor. More people (87%) trust this profession to “act in their best interest” than any other institution or actor listed in a recent global survey conducted by the Collective Intelligence Project, a non-profit organisation. AI chatbots, or large language models, scored 57% on the same metric, far higher than either elected politicians or large corporations (which scored 33% and 36% respectively), suggesting that many people may be increasingly comfortable with AI playing a larger role in civic life.

Trust in politicians has been low for some time. Nobody has to try too hard to think of a politician that appears distant, unresponsive, self-interested, or possibly all three. By contrast, consider the strengths of AI: it’s always on and ever responsive. Part of its explicit design is to explain complex issues in accessible language, provide information that is context-relevant and offer opinions that appear impartial, particularly when compared to those uttered by politicians.

So, should we be handing over the keys of 10 Downing Street to the bots? It’s not quite so simple. The real test of trust is not whether people listen to AI, but whether they are prepared to let it make decisions for them (see our recent work for more on this topic). Furthermore, AI has limitations. Sure, it can expand access to information, but equally, algorithms can amplify misinformation. Humans are bad at detecting bias at the best of times. Perhaps the onus is on both politicians and AI systems to provide clearer and more reliable information. Here’s hoping…

*For readers not familiar with the 2004 comedy show Little Britain, the Blog’s title is a reference to the catchphrase “computer says no” that was popularised on the programme. It refers to an unhelpful customer service attitude, where staff blindly rely on automated systems or digital rules to reject a request, refusing to use common sense or show flexibility.

12 August 2026

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