Republican voters less confident than Democrats in spotting AI deepfakes, poll shows

Only one in four registered voters have strong confidence in their ability to tell the difference between real and AI-generated visual content, according to new research. Responses to a poll on artificial intelligence in politics also showed broad concerns among both Democrats and Republicans with AI’s influence over elections, as well as demands for increased curbs on its use. Members of both parties don’t want their candidates tweeting synthetic media.

The survey was provided exclusively to the Guardian by UK-based research firm Savanta, which originally commissioned it in response to a Guardian story about the origins of Taylor Swift deepfakes posted on Truth Social by Donald Trump. Savanta polled a representative and weighted sample of 2,004 US adults from across different demographics and regions.

“This is a very real problem, and one that voters want social media companies to grapple with,” Ethan Granholm, a research analyst at Savanta, said.

When asked about being able to tell the difference between real and AI content, 35% of Democrats responded that they were only slightly confident or not confident at all in their ability to make a correct judgment, while 45% of Republicans said they were not at all or only slightly confident in their discernment. Republicans were also more likely than Democrats – a difference of 72% to 66%, respectively – to say that it was not acceptable for political candidates to post AI-generated cont