Supporters of President Trump strongly favor measures that would shield Americans — especially creatives — from being harmed by the emergence of artificial intelligence and outlaw so-called “deepfakes,” according to a new poll released Wednesday.
Among voters who backed Trump in the 2024 presidential election, 87% agree that AI developers should obtain permission from writers and artists before using their creative works to train for-profit AI models and that “effective guardrails” are needed to “protect people from being exploited” by the technology.
The nationwide survey of Trump voters, released Wednesday and obtained by The Post, was conducted by Global Strategy Group and North Star Opinion Research on behalf of the Human Artistry Campaign — a coalition of groups representing recording artists, photographers, actors, songwriters, composers, athletes and journalists pushing for the “advancement of responsible AI.”
The polls release comes a week after the Senate overwhelmingly rejected the inclusion of a 10-year ban on state regulation of AI in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and a day after the Washington Post reported that an impersonator using AI-powered software to mimic Secretary of State Marco Rubio voice and writing style had reached out to multiple high-level US and foreign officials.
Nearly 9 in 10 Trump voters (88%) described voice clones and deepfakes as a problem, and 84% signaled support for the NO FAKES Act — bipartisan legislation that would ban unauthorized computer-generated recreations of a person’s voice and likeness.
“Conservatives clearly aren’t buying what Big AI is selling,” Human Artistry Campaign Senior Advisor Moiya McTier argued. “This poll makes clear that the President’s strongest supporters want meaningful protection from AI abuses and strongly believe human creators have the right to decide when, how and on what terms their art is or isn’t used by AI.”
AI companies are facing a slew of lawsuits challenging their practice of scraping the internet for data, including music, writings and images, to train their systems without paying for it.
Nearly all Trump voters (84%) indicated that AI companies should pay “market rates” for this kind of data, and 81% expressed concern that the US economy would be harmed without legal protections guarding creative works from AI companies.
Eighty percent of Trump supporters also expressed concern that China and other adversarial nations were stealing American creative works to train AI models and agreed the US must punish them for doing so in order to compete in the tech race.
“The data is clear that Trump voters have big concerns about AI misuse, and they want to see leaders in Washington take action,” Global Strategy Group Vice President of Research Katie Drapcho said in a statement.
English (US) ·