Abstract
We investigate the impact of the latest advances in information technologies on California voters' political knowledge through a two-wave online survey experiment. We developed BallotBot, an interactive chatbot that provides official information about statewide ballot measures. We show that, as compared to the official voter guide, it increases by 10% the total amount of knowledge voters produce while decreasing the perceived and objective cost of producing it. The effect is higher considering in-depth matters, and it is particularly strong in respondents starting from a low level of perceived knowledge. Moreover, we find that using BallotBot increases by 70% the time respondents invest to seek information they care about right after the survey and makes their interests wider. Finally, we find that extensive use of BallotBot raises retained knowledge by 30% but has little effect on voters’ ability to motivate their voting intentions. By contrast, using the voter guide enhances this ability by 17%, without improving retained knowledge.