Show HN: 65k AI voters predict UK local elections with 75% accuracy
6 hours ago
- #Reform-UK
- #election-prediction
- #synthetic-personas
- 65,000 synthetic UK voters were created from Census 2021 data, each with demographics, a DYNAMICS-8 psychological profile, and political history to predict the 7 May 2026 local elections.
- The model was validated against 10 real council by-elections in March 2026, improving accuracy from 1 to 6 correct winners out of 8 after nine iterations and calibration.
- Calibration revealed systematic errors: over-predicting Reform UK by ~10% and under-predicting Liberal Democrats by ~7%, applied to predictions.
- Predictions for the first 20 councils (all currently Labour-held) show Reform UK leading with 39.6% vote share, winning 18 councils, while Conservatives collapse to 7.7%.
- Key specific predictions: Doncaster and Sunderland see Reform UK above 50%, Bristol goes Green, Manchester holds for Labour narrowly, and Birmingham, Coventry, and Sheffield are Reform blowouts.
- Findings indicate Reform UK's support is durable, driven by personality traits like low Novelty and high Discipline; Greens attract progressive voters; Lib Dems are strong in affluent areas.
- Methodology involves ward-level matching, multi-layer correction (turnout, incumbency, protest dynamics), and inference via Kronaxis Imprint, a 27-billion parameter language model.
- Full predictions for 136 councils will be published on 1 May 2026, with an accuracy report after results and open access to methodology and DYNAMICS-8 model.