Political discourse through artificial intelligence: parliamentary practices and public perceptions of chatbot communication in social media

At present, there is mainly one intermediate group between parliamentarians and the public on social networks: Parliamentary Assistants (PAs). However, there is a new "intermediary" evolving on social media: chatbots. Through Israeli Knesset PA questionnaires and a public opinion survey we examine the use of chatbots in this parliamentary context – artificially-created discourse indiscernibly mimicking the parliamentarian’s message and style – focusing on how PAs and the public perceive the use of chatbots.