Reform UK is achieving significantly higher visibility on artificial intelligence platforms than expected, according to a new study by analytics firm Peec AI. The research found that AI models such as ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview are more likely to reference Nigel Farage than any other UK political leader when prompted about British politics.
Research Methodology
Peec AI tested leading AI models with 5,000 structured prompts related to British politics, covering topics including the economy, immigration, healthcare, and crime. These prompts were run repeatedly over several weeks, generating over 280,000 data points. The study aimed to measure how often different political figures and parties appeared in AI responses.
Key Findings
The research revealed that Farage surfaced more frequently than Prime Minister Keir Starmer across multiple AI systems. Reform UK appeared in 88% of Google AI Overviews, while Starmer appeared in only 11% of ChatGPT's responses. The party's visibility increased notably on queries about immigration and council tax.
“We are confident in saying that Reform are showing up significantly more than you would expect,” said Malte Landwehr, an expert at Peec AI. “So they’re doing something right when it comes to LLM visibility.”
AI as a Political Battleground
Large language models are becoming a new frontier for political messaging, with profound implications for party success. More people are turning to AI for information, and the models are increasingly willing to provide detailed responses on political topics.
“What we’re tending to find is that, compared to maybe about even a year ago, if you had asked a question related to politics, they would basically just politely decline to respond,” said Sam Stockwell, a senior researcher at the Alan Turing Institute. “But what we are now seeing is that they’re very happy and willing to give you information on policies, on pandemics, and all of it sounds very convincing.”
Sources and Manipulation Risks
The study found that AI models often rely on social media and open web sources for breaking events, making them susceptible to manipulation. Facebook was the most cited source in AI responses, followed by the BBC, the UK parliament website, and Wikipedia.
Landwehr noted that Reform UK's social media strategy, which involves commenting on numerous posts with consistent messages, likely contributes to its high visibility. Reform UK has been accused of running networks of social media accounts spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Research on “LLM grooming” indicates that AI models can be easily influenced by large volumes of repetitive content, such as that produced by disinformation networks.
A Google spokesperson stated that AI Overviews are “designed to present information objectively based on a wide range of sources from the web,” and that “being mentioned in an AI Overview is not an indication of bias.”
