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The “election-bot” Rose answers a question on the KakaoTalk mobile messaging service

Lee Yeo-jin, a 28-year-old job-seeker, was curious about the employment pledges made by the candidates in next month’s presidential election. After adding the “election-bot” Rose as a friend on her KakaoTalk mobile messaging service, she inquired about the job pledges of candidates Moon Jae-in of the Minjoo Party and Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party. Rose replied immediately with a summary of the two candidate’s major pledges, including Moon’s promise to create 810,000 public sector jobs and Ahn‘s to introduce duty-based regular positions in the public sector.

Her interest in the pledges piqued, Lee next turned to the Nude President service (https://nudepresident.com). The service first gives an objective rundown of the individual candidates’ pledges with their names obscured. Users are asked to pick which ones they like, after which the service generates the name of the candidate whose views are closest to theirs. Lee, who had always thought of herself as leaning progressive and reformist politically, was surprised to see her high matching rate with candidate Yoo Seong-min from the conservative Bareun Party.

“I had positive feelings toward Candidate A, and I thought it would be Candidate B in terms of pledges, so it was a shock,” Lee said.

“I think I need to look over the pledges again,” she added.

which matches voters with the presidential candidates whose pledges suit their preferences (provided by Fiscal Note Korea)

Nude President service

Rapid advancements in information technology and artificial intelligence have resulted in a proliferation of smart services to help voters make decisions ahead of the May 9 presidential election. If past elections followed an “application-centered” format of sharing candidates’ pledges and polling site information, the latest has reached the stage of finding “customized” candidates for individual voters.

In the case of the machine learning technology-based Rose, information about candidate pledges and support rates, major news, and local polling sites is provided not by a person, but by AI. The technology is still in the early stages, and more difficult questions result in a reply of “I’m sorry, but I’d be glad to help you with a different question.” But by entering a candidate’s name and pledges in areas such as jobs, North Korea, and social services, users are provided with a real-time digest.

Nude President, which had been used by some 320,000 people as of Apr. 12, gathers a large volume of information on candidates, pledges, and the election in general, which it subjects to big data analysis to find the candidates whose values and policies are most similar to the user’s beliefs. Many visitors wrote replies expressing regret over their past choices after using the site, lamenting that they had “merely looked at the person” when voting.

“I knew the gist of what the most talked-about candidates Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo had pledged, but after using the service I also found out what the other candidates’ pledges were,” said 25-year-old user Choi Ji-hee.

“There were a few candidates like Shim Sang-jung [left-wing Justice Party] and Hong Joon-pyo [conservative Liberty Korea Party] whose pledges I could support, which made me realize I‘d been looking too much at the candidates themselves,” Choi added.

The numerous responses from the more than 300,000 users also offer a glimpse at which pledges are capturing voter attention. An analysis by Fiscal Note Korea, the start-up that operates the Nude President site, found working people in their thirties to be most interested in pledges dealing with real estate, following by working hour reductions, a fair market economy, and child care. Users in their twenties were most interested in job creation, youth social services, and the minimum wage.

“We started the service because we thought voters might experience some trouble finding the standards to make a decision with the election being staged in such a hurry after the president’s impeachment,” explained Nude President operator Kang Youn-mo, 32.

“We hope this will now be an election where people see the pledges and policies and find the right candidate for them,” Kang said.

By Lee Seung-jun, staff reporter

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