LONDON: Google Inc.'s chief executive Eric Schmidt says the internet is changing politics, but politicians are yet to realize this fact.
Schmidt, in U.K. to address the opposition Conservatives at their party conference in Bournemouth in south England, said the elections would change forever in the next five years because it will become possible for people to check facts searching through information on what a politician speaks about, even during a debate.
He said in future elections, politicians, now depending on TV-based campaigning, will have to rely on electors who will be experts in gleaning information from the net. And return to office is going to be a real tough task.
Schmidt said the true political power of the internet will be to hold politicians to account. Computers will be able to test politicians' statements for truthfulness, he said.
He told them about a service that could be possible in the next five years, which will enable a voter to check instantly whether statements made by politicians were correct.
He also told the politicians voters are becoming more aware of how to check facts and they are beginning to hold the representatives much more responsible for the things they say.
Later he coined the phrase -- appointment politics, in which politicians switch on and off for the cameras, versus always-on politics.
Schmidt said in a newspaper interview that politicians are yet to appreciate the impact of the online world, which will also affect the outcome of elections.
He said there could be a "truth predictor" software that would, "hold politicians to account." People would be able to use the software to verify seemingly factual statements against historical data.
