By Burt Glass
An overwhelming majority of Americans across the political spectrum support protections against “deepfakes” in media that use a person’s voice and visual likeness without permission, according to a new opinion survey designed by the Communication Research Center at Boston University’s College of Communication and conducted by Ipsos.
More than four of five (84%) respondents agreed or strongly agreed that individuals should be protected from the unauthorized use of their voice and visual likeness in digital replicas created by artificial intelligence, or AI.
“As social media platforms scale back content moderation and generative AI creates realistic imitations of celebrities, creators, and journalists, disinformation is spreading faster and more widely than ever before,” said Michelle Amazeen, associate professor and CRC director at Boston University. “In this confusing environment, one principle has strong bipartisan support: the public overwhelmingly agrees that everyone’s voice and image should be protected from unauthorized AI-generated recreations.”