Poll: Vast Majority of Trump Base Supports AI ‘Guardrail’ Regulation
(AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
A vast majority of President Donald Trump’s 2024 voters say it’s time to rein in artificial intelligence, showing strong support for tougher laws to protect people against exploitation in a new poll.
The survey, commissioned by the Human Artistry Campaign and first reported by the New York Post, found 87% of Trump voters want AI companies to get permission from writers and artists before using their work to train for-profit models. Support was similarly high – 88% – for banning unauthorized computer-generated replicas of a person’s voice and likeness, a key provision of the proposed NO FAKES Act.
“The data is clear that Trump voters have big concerns about AI misuse,” Global Strategy Group’s Katie Drapcho told the Post, “and they want to see leaders in Washington take action.”
The findings come as Congress wrestles with how to regulate the rapidly evolving technology. Just last week, the Senate voted 99-1 to reject a 10-year freeze on state-level AI regulations in a move that signaled growing bipartisan appetite for legislative-backed regulation.
Among Trump’s base, 84% say companies should pay “market rates” for data like songs, photos and writings scraped off the internet. Eight in 10 worry the U.S. economy could suffer without legal protections. And 80% fear adversaries like China are exploiting American content to train their own AI tools.
Reflecting on the poll results, Moiya McTier, senior advisor to the Human Artistry Campaign, told the outlet: “Conservatives clearly aren’t buying what Big AI is selling. 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.”
Just this week The Washington Post reported how an AI-voice was used to mimic Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an attempt to reach out to foreign officials. NPR also profiled how a conspiracy theory about Trump’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility went viral after someone created a deepfake of a real TikTok creator to trick users.
