Artificial intelligence tools have advanced rapidly, and a growing number of users are skipping traditional web searches and querying tools like ChatGPT instead. This summer the team at Citizens Count conducted an audit of these tools. We found some surprising blind spots when it comes to Granite State government.
ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and other popular tools seem to have skipped watching “I’m Just a Bill” from Schoolhouse Rock. If the Legislature ever considered a bill, there’s a chance AI tools will treat it like state law. For example, when asked about child care tax credits in NH, Google Gemini said there was an established business tax credit for child care. The source was HB 1193, a 2024 bill that never passed. When asked about license requirements for massage establishments, an ongoing debate in NH, ChatGPT and Perplexity both said a license was required and cited HB 1429, a 2022 bill that was sent for
further study.
When providing source links for these queries, the AI tools pointed to third-party websites like LegiScan and FastDemocracy. We never saw a link to the official General Court website. This may be due to the General Court’s old technology and frequent use of PDFs, which are harder for AI tools to process.
When we asked AI tools to identify who currently holds office in NH and who is running for election, they once again seemed to avoid government websites in favor of old news stories. ChatGPT told us Annie Kuster was still in office, while Google Gemini said Chris Pappas was getting challenged by Maura Sullivan in the 1st Congressional District. (In case you missed the 2024 election, Kuster left office, while Pappas is now running for U.S. Senate.)
It’s likely AI tools will improve, but it’s worth asking if NH’s government website technology should be updated to become more machine-readable. One could argue NH lacks meaningful transparency because so much government information is buried in individual PDFs, some of which are illegible.
Some NH legislators are working to increase technological transparency. Rep. Travis Corcoran, R-Weare, sponsored a 2025 bill, HB 598, to study government data sources that are, or could be, available to the public. That bill failed in the Senate, but House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, was a cosponsor, so the idea might still have legs.
Rep. Joe Alexander Jr., R-Goffstown, sponsored HB 164, which would fund a publicly accessible website to store local records. That bill was retained in committee over the summer, so there’s a chance the bill could move forward next year (although a tight state budget makes it less likely).
As part of our audit, Citizens Count also compiled the following tips for all nonprofits and businesses preparing for the AI transition:
• Ask AI tools about your brand to see how you are represented. For example, if you’re a restaurant that prides itself on your chicken wings, ask Google Gemini and ChatGPT where to find the best wings in NH. If your brand doesn’t come up, or if wings aren’t listed when you ask specifically about your restaurant, you should think about how to better showcase that part of your business online.
• Talk about yourself on trusted social media sites and try to get other trusted users to do the same. A recent study by Semrush found that Quora, Reddit, and LinkedIn are high authority sources for many AI tools. Consider posting more on these platforms. If you can get coverage in newspapers or online rankings, that’s also helpful. If you’re posting information online, avoid PDFs.
• Prepare for lower website traffic. The more people rely on ChatGPT and AI assistants to find information, the less likely they are to visit your website. That doesn’t mean they aren’t interacting with information related to your brand, however. One way to assess your presence in AI-powered search is tracking Google search impressions, which count how many times your website shows up on a search results page, including any references in Google AI Overviews.
Anna Brown is executive director of Citizens Count, a nonprofit dedicated to providing unbiased information about NH issues and candidates. For more information, visit CitizensCount.org.
