Voters Strongly Believe AI Companies Should Be Required to Demonstrate Their Products Are Free of Harm Before Public Use
By Tenneth Fairclough II
From January 10 to 11, 2024, Data for Progress and Accountable Tech conducted a survey of 1,223 likely voters nationally to examine voters’ attitudes toward AI as a top issue in the new year and beliefs around AI products being harmful.
First, we asked voters if they agree or disagree that regulating AI should be a top priority for U.S. lawmakers in 2024. Sixty-three percent of likely voters agree that this issue should be a top priority for lawmakers in the new year. We find consistent agreement with this sentiment across party lines: 63% of Democrats, 65% of Independents, and 61% of Republicans say that regulating AI should be a top priority.
We then asked whether voters believe companies that develop AI tools should or should not be required to demonstrate that their products are free of harm before they are made available to the public. Eighty-five percent of likely voters believe companies that develop AI tools should be required to demonstrate their products are free of harm for public consumption. We find a strong consensus with this sentiment across party lines: 86% of Democrats and 84% of both Independents and Republicans believe AI companies should be required to demonstrate their AI tools are free of harm before being publicly available.
Tenneth Fairclough II (@tenten_wins) is a polling analyst at Data for Progress.