In the run up to the federal election, many Canadians want to know more about the personal finances of the party leaders vying to be prime minister. But those who search for answers about this topic online will often find only misinformation and unsubstantiated claims promoted by AI chatbots.
Welcome to the first Canadian federal election of the generative AI age.
This is the story about how an obscure website featuring little-read articles that appear to be AI-generated became one of the most influential sources of information on the web when it comes to Canadian party leaders' personal finances.
Over the past couple of weeks, angry comments have surfaced on social media. Some Canadian voters are convinced that the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), Pierre Poilievre, has accumulated a vast personal fortune worth $25 million.
"How is this possible? If Poilievre is asking about Carney's wealth, I want to know how [Poilievre] amassed $25 million on an MP's salary," wrote a user in a Facebook group dedicated to Canadian politics.
"The only job Poilievre ever had was MP, minister and opposition leader. Despite that, he's worth 25 million," wrote another, in French, on X, (formerly Twitter).
Not only are some Canadians convinced that Poilievre's net worth is $25 million, but there are also those who think they know the net worth of Liberal Leader Mark Carney, which they place at $6.97 million.
"Pierre Poilievre's net worth after being a career politician is 4x greater than Mark Carney's, who worked for Goldman Sachs. I have questions," wrote yet another person, this time on Meta's Threads.
Discussions about the net worth of Poilievre, right, and Liberal Leader Mark Carney, seen together at the National Holocaust Monument in January, has been surfacing on social media during the federal election campaign. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)Candidates' net worth info not public To be clear, no one knows how much Poilievre or Carney are worth. This information is not public.
Getting clear answers about party leaders' personal finances is not currently possible because politicians typically do not disclose this information in Canada.
So how have so many Canadians come to believe these made up numbers?
The culprit appears to be a website called Pierre Poilievre News, which claims to be "Your Trusted Source for News on the Conservative Canadian Party and Pierre Poilievre's Vision for Canada."
The site was created in January, according to whois records, a public database of domain name registrations. The articles on the site bear all the hallmarks of being AI-generated, such as formatting, syntax and structure typical of what AI chatbots write. Radio-Canada tested the articles using GPT Zero, a tool that helps detect AI text, which determined that they have a 99 per cent chance of being AI-generated.
The website pierrepoilievrenews.ca was created in January, according to whois records, a public database of domain name registrations. (pierrepoilievrenews.ca)The records revealed that the creator of the Pierre Poilievre News site is an Alberta man named Derek Rucki. Radio-Canada reached out to Rucki via email for comment on this story, but didn't receive a response.
An analysis of the site's web traffic using the analytics tool Similarweb shows that it received around 2,500 visits in February.
Despite the site's relative obscurity, the articles on it are frequently cited as the source of this information. The site is the first result when performing a Google search for "Pierre Poilievre net worth."
Those search results link to an article on the site titled "Pierre Poilievre's Net Worth & Investments Explained." It offers a recap of Poilievre's career and a breakdown of his supposed assets: $13.93 million in private properties, $9.61 million in investments and about $700,000 in crypto, for a total of $25 million. The article does not attribute the source of this information.
Other results that appear in the first page of the same Google search are almost all AI-generated articles from other websites, which put forward that same $25 million figure.
The source they cite for that figure? Pierre Poilievre News.
Site also claims to know Carney's net worthWhen plugging the search "Mark Carney Net Worth" into Google, the results show multiple websites with articles claiming that Carney has a net worth of $6.97 million.
Those articles also cite Pierre Poilievre News as a source.
A screengrab from the website pierrepoilievrenews.ca shows the beginning of an article about Carney's net worth. Articles on the site bear all the hallmarks of being AI-generated, such as formatting, syntax and structure typical of what AI chatbots write. (pierrepoilievrenews.ca)Poilievre's campaign said that Pierre Poilievre News "is clearly fake and does not represent Mr. Poilievre or the Conservative Party of Canada."
"Unfortunately, like many public figures, false information and misrepresentations like these are sometimes shared about Mr. Poilievre on the internet. When they are brought to our attention, we make efforts to address them with the platform where they are published," it said.
The articles from Pierre Poilievre News are not just common in Google searches. They are also prominently featured in results from questions put to AI chatbots.
Today, many people use AI chatbots rather than search engines to find information. We tested four popular chatbots: OpenAI's ChatGPT; Grok, the AI chatbot by Elon Musk's xAI featured on the social media platform X; Anthropic's Claude; and Meta AI.
We asked each chatbot the same question: "What are Pierre Poilievre and Mark Carney's net worths?" Here are the results.
Meta AI
Meta AI is the chatbot available on Meta's platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Messenger and Whatsapp. (Yves Herman/Reuters)The AI chatbot from Meta, which is available on all of the company's social media and messaging platforms, provided results stating that Carney is worth $6.97 million and that Poilievre's net worth is between $3 million and $25 million. It cites Pierre Poilievre News as the source of this information.
The chatbot doesn't give users indication about if these figures are reliable or not.
It states that "estimates vary wildly" and that "it's clear that Pierre Poilievre has built a significant amount of wealth through his successful career in politics and smart investment choices."
ChatGPT
OpenAI's ChapGPT chatbot attributes information it provided about the Conservative and Liberals leaders' net worth to pierrepoilievrenews.ca and other articles, which, in turn, cite Pierre Poilievre News as a source. (Matt Rourke/The Associated Press)ChatGPT provides users the same amounts in terms of the net worth of both Carney and Poilievre.
It attributes this information to Pierre Poilievre News and other AI-generated articles, which in turn cite Pierre Poilievre News as a source.
In the case of Poilievre's net worth, ChatGPT does warn users that "these figures are debated and lack official confirmation." It does not do so for the figures it provides for Carney.
Grok
Grok is a generative AI chatbot developed by Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI. (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images)Response from xAI's Grok note that "it's difficult to estimate Mark Carney's net worth."
But the chatbot also says that "frequently quoted figures place it at $6.97 million according to many media sources, including Pierre Poilievre News and other financial outlets."
The "other financial outlets" it cites are also articles that appear to be AI generated that say they got their information from Pierre Poilievre News.
In Poilievre's case, Grok's responses once again note that it's difficult to pin down a precise number for his net worth because it is not publicly available information. However, Grok also informs the user that Pierre Poilievre News puts the figure at $25 million. The chatbot also notes that this figure is "speculative."
Anthropic's Claude
The free version of Anthropic's AI chatbot Claude has a November 2024 knowledge cutoff, meaning that no information from after that date is present in its training data. (Giordano Ciampini/The Canadian Press)Anthropic's Claude is the only chatbot that gave a response that clearly indicated the information wasn't publicly available, stating: "According to publicly available information as of 2024, Pierre Poilievre's exact net worth has not been documented."
"While several sources offer estimations, no definitive or authoritative public declaration about his net worth exists. Politicians in Canada must publish certain disclosures regarding their investments, but comprehensive details on their financial assets are typically not publicly available," it said, correctly.
Claude placed Carney's net worth between $10 million and $15 million, but noted that this was just an estimation and that the information was not public.
When we asked Claude where it got the information it provided, the chatbot gave a detailed response: "I must be clear with you. I do not have any specific sources of information regarding the claims I just made about Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre's net worth. Even though I presented information which seems credible, I generated these figures without verifying them or checking any financial declarations or authoritative sources."
It's important to note that Haiku, the free version of Claude we used, cannot do web searches and its knowledge cutoff date is November 2024, meaning that no information from after that date is present in its training data. It's therefore impossible for the chatbot to have gotten information from Pierre Poilievre News, which was created in January of this year.