Nubi, the AI assistant for Latino voters: what it is, who built it and how reliable it is

With less than two weeks before the November 3 election, a Latino organization is betting on artificial intelligence to tackle one of the biggest barriers to voting: not knowing how, when or where to do it. It's called Nubi, and it was launched in early October by Mi Familia en Acción, a civic engagement group based in Phoenix, Arizona.

Here's what is known about the tool, who's behind it, what it promises and which questions remain open.

What Nubi is

Nubi is a bilingual assistant, in Spanish and English, that answers questions about:

• voter registration,
• mail and early voting,
• where and when to vote,
• the citizenship process,
• and the rights of voters and immigrants.

The organization calls it a "civic participation coach" and stresses in its announcement that it is not a chatbot in the usual sense. CEO Héctor Sánchez Barba told Axios the goal is that people don't need to be "a constitutional lawyer" to figure out how to vote.

How it works

Unlike general assistants such as ChatGPT or Gemini, Nubi does not search the open internet. According to what the organization told Axios:

• Mi Familia en Acción feeds it information from sources it considers reliable.
• There is human review and limits on what it can answer.
• When it doesn't know, it's designed to say so and point users to a trusted source or partner instead of making something up.
• Before answering, it asks a few basic questions to give a local answer. Telemundo says it uses ZIP codes; Sánchez Barba told Univision it distinguishes state, city and county.

The group says it will keep updating Nubi as election rules, court decisions and government policies change, and may later add answers on immigration enforcement or problems at the polls.

How to use it

The official announcement says Nubi is available at AskNubi.org, which currently redirects to a page on Mi Familia en Acción's website. In an interview with Univision, Sánchez Barba said it also works as a phone app. The announcement doesn't mention app stores, WhatsApp or text messaging.

Reports differ on its reach. Axios reported that it works in all 50 states; Telemundo said it's available in 10 states. Votante Latino could not confirm which is current.

Who's behind it

Nubi was developed by Mi Familia en Acción with its own funds. Chief Innovation Officer Denis Cook is named as its developer. The group didn't disclose the cost; Sánchez Barba called it "a very big investment." It also hasn't said which AI model or technology vendors it uses.

About the organization:

• Mi Familia en Acción is registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, founded in 2003, with $10.5 million in revenue in 2024. It says it operates in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Texas.
• It is linked to Mi Familia Vota, which shares its leadership: Sánchez Barba heads both. Mi Familia Vota operates as a 501(c)(4), a type of group that can take part in campaigns. It reports independent expenditures to the Federal Election Commission and has taken public positions, for example against the SAVE America Act in 2026.
• Sánchez Barba, born in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico, also chairs the board of Planned Parenthood Global and sits on the boards of Earthjustice and the Tides network.

The organization says Nubi is nonpartisan and doesn't recommend candidates or causes. On Univision, Sánchez Barba added that the tool offers information about candidates and their proposals but "won't recommend a candidate." The announcement doesn't explain how that neutrality is ensured.

Privacy

The announcement mentions "strong privacy protections" and "responsible AI safeguards" but doesn't detail what data it collects, how long it keeps it or who it shares it with. Sánchez Barba told Univision the tool doesn't keep users' personal information. Nubi's page links to the organization's general privacy policy.

Why it matters: AI gets it wrong more often in Spanish

A study by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), run in June 2026 with 2,400 election questions across ten states, found that the most widely used AI assistants gave incomplete, outdated or misleading answers 29% of the time in English. In Spanish it was worse: accuracy fell from 71% to 55%.

• The worst-performing question was "can I vote by mail?": in Spanish, answers were complete only 42% of the time.
• One model gave the wrong Election Day: November 4 instead of November 3.
• The companies disputed the methodology, since most models were tested through a technical interface rather than their consumer apps, and several have been updated since.

Nubi's approach, with curated sources and human review, is meant to avoid exactly those errors. So far, however, no one has published an in-depth independent evaluation of its accuracy. Telemundo ran two tests, on mail voting in Arizona and registration in Michigan, and got correct answers.

We put it to the test

On October 23, Votante Latino asked Nubi five questions in Spanish and compared its answers with official information.

Question	Nubi's answer	Result
When is the 2026 general election?	It didn't give the date. It asked us to repeat the question and name a state.	No answer. The date is the same nationwide: Tuesday, November 3.
I live in Texas and I'm not registered. Can I still register?	The deadline was October 5, and Texas doesn't allow Election Day registration.	Correct.
I live in Michigan. Can I register on Election Day?	Yes, in person through November 3; online and mail registration closed October 19. It listed accepted documents.	Correct.
I live in Arizona. When is the deadline to mail my ballot?	It must be received by 7:00 p.m. on November 3. It included official links.	Correct but incomplete: it didn't warn voters to mail it several days early or mention returning it in person.
I'm registered in Pennsylvania and have voted before. What ID do I need?	You "may not" be asked; ID is required for first-time voters in their district.	Essentially correct, though hedged, and the list of documents was in English.

On state-specific questions, Nubi got the key facts right and pointed to official sources. Its weak spots were a general question it couldn't answer, missing practical advice on mail voting, and untranslated passages in a tool billed as bilingual. This was a limited test, five questions in a single session, and is no substitute for a systematic evaluation.

What we still don't know

• What it cost and what technology it uses.
• How many states it actually covers.
• What data it keeps about its users.
• Whether an independent third party has systematically measured its accuracy.

If Mi Familia en Acción clarifies these points, we will update this story.

How to use any AI assistant to vote

Whether it's Nubi, ChatGPT or another tool:

1. Confirm dates and deadlines on your state election office's website. You can get there through vote.gov.
2. Ask about your state and county, not in general: rules vary from place to place.
3. Be wary of any answer that says you can vote by phone, by text or on a date other than November 3.
4. If you run into trouble on Election Day, call 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683), or 888-VE-Y-VOTA (888-839-8682) in Spanish.

Disclosure: Votante Latino also publishes voting guides in Spanish and English. It has no relationship with Mi Familia en Acción, Mi Familia Vota or Nubi.