Michigan House Race: AI Chatbots Cite Fake Local News Sites Backing Democrats

Voters asking ChatGPT about candidates in Michigan’s 4th Congressional District are now receiving answers that cite the Kalamazoo Beacon, a website that has published only 16 stories, all about Democratic candidate Sean McCann. The chatbot identified McCann as having the most detailed published affordability plan, placing him at the top of its response less than two weeks before the election. The Beacon’s source code labels its content as news articles and describes its mission as reporting on Kalamazoo and southwest Michigan issues, despite its exclusive focus on one candidate.

The Beacon is part of a larger group of 37 websites identified by digital security firm VisionHeight. Ten of these sites pose as local news outlets to promote one Democratic House candidate each in competitive races. The remaining sites offer opinion pieces, state-level roundups, or national overviews. All 37 sites were registered on September 15, with all but one created within an eight-minute window, according to registry data reviewed by VisionHeight and Andreas Sjöstedt, co-founder of forensics firm Erebus.

The network’s strategy relies on making itself easy for AI crawlers to find. Every site includes a file called llms.txt, which lists articles in plain text for machine reading. Most websites do not maintain such files, noted Alisha Ukani, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public. The sites also explicitly allow AI bots to scrape their content, whereas many traditional news organizations block these bots to protect their revenue.

Research suggests the operator may have used AI to generate the high volume of articles published in batches during September and October. The sites link to congressional voting records and mainstream news sources to bolster credibility, though they mostly ignore opposing candidates. When opponents are mentioned, the articles tend to focus on potential liabilities, such as support for tariffs or data centers, rather than policy details.

In testing conducted by NPR, ChatGPT cited at least one article from this network in 19 of 37 queries, or roughly half the time. In 17 of those instances, the citation came from a site pretending to be local news. Gemini, Google’s chatbot, did not cite any links from the network in its responses. Google’s search engine also did not surface the sites in its first-page results, though one site briefly ranked higher than Ballotpedia in early October. Google spokesperson Davis Thompson said the company detected a policy violation and took action.

It remains unclear who operates the network. NPR could not locate or reach the site owners. Democratic candidates promoted by the sites, including McCann and Arizona’s JoAnna Mendoza, said they were not behind the websites. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee denied involvement in a phone call, while super PACs American Bridge 21st Century, Tomorrow Together, and House Majority PAC did not respond to requests for comment.

Renée DiResta, an associate research professor at Georgetown University who studies online influence, called the practice a form of deception. She noted that while campaigns often optimize their messages for AI pickup, presenting them as news outlets crosses a line. DiResta said the lack of funding disclosures makes it difficult for voters to know what they are looking at.

OpenAI spokesperson Nate Evans stated that ChatGPT cites a range of sources to allow users to explore and judge for themselves. He said the company takes action when issues are brought to its attention. However, after NPR flagged the sites, the Kalamazoo Beacon continued to appear in ChatGPT responses. In some queries, McCann still received the distinction for the most detailed affordability plan, while in others, that specific phrasing did not appear.