Two-thirds of North Carolina voters think political ads should be required to disclose if they were made using artificial intelligence

By Lee Rainie

The new Elon Poll covered a lot of important issues about national and North Carolina politics. One is especially relevant to the Imagining the Digital Future Center: tracking public attitudes about artificial intelligence (AI) during the campaign.

In this survey, we asked whether there should be a state law requiring political ads to include a disclosure if they were made using generative artificial intelligence – AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft’s Copilot. Fully 69% of North Carolina voters thought such disclosure should be required and just 9% opposed such a law. About a fifth said they weren’t sure.

Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans (and those who say they lean towards each party) supported the idea of a disclosure requirement, but Democrats were more likely to back it – 77% vs. 66%.

Some other demographic differences of note: Those with college degrees were more likely than those with less education to back disclosure (81% vs. 63%); those ages 45 and older were more likely than younger voters to support disclosure (74% vs. 62%); white voters were more likely than Black voters to back the idea (72% vs. 62%).

The popularity of the idea that those who use AI to create content should disclose that fact has become appealing to some lawmakers and regulators. Many of those anxious about the ease of using AI to create political and commercial ads and deep-fakes of people have argued that disclosure of AI use is a minimal starting point to help people navigate an increasingly challenging news and information environment.

In addition to passing laws to outright ban some kinds of deep-fakes, some 15 states are considering disclosure rules for AI-created material. In addition, there are pending bills in the U.S. House and Senate requiring “clear and conspicuous” disclosure of AI-created content.

At the same time, the Federal Communications Commission has proposed disclosure rules and its chair, Democratic appointee Jessica Rosenworcel has said she would like to have the rules in place this election season. But Federal Election Commission chair Seam Cooksey, appointed by Republican Donald Trump, argued that current federal disclosure laws are sufficient and changing them with an AI-disclosure requirement this election year would “sow chaos” among campaigns. It is not clear if such rules will eventually be promulgated.

Trump has already used his social media posts to promote fake images created by AI.