Polling the void: Chatbots as human substitutes episode artwork

EPISODE · Apr 9, 2026 · 35 MIN

Polling the void: Chatbots as human substitutes

from The Horse Race · host Steve Koczela; Jennifer Smith

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

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Apr 9, 2026

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Polling the void: Chatbots as human substitutes

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