72 percent of Americans worry about deepfakes influencing elections

New research from identity verification company Jumio finds growing concern among Americans about the political influence AI and deepfakes may have during upcoming elections and how they might influence trust in online media.

The study of over 8,000 adult consumers, split evenly across the UK, US, Singapore and Mexico, finds 72 percent of Americans are worried about the potential for AI and deepfakes to influence upcoming elections in their country.

US consumers feel deepfakes undermine trust in politicians and media, with 70 percent reporting increased skepticism in the content they see online, compared to the last election.

Globally only 46 percent of consumers believe they could easily spot a deepfake of a political figure or celebrity. This drops to 37 percent in the US and confidence changes by age group, with only 22 percent of Americans aged 55 or over trusting their ability.

Men aged between 18 and 34 are most confident in their fake spotting ability (75 percent) while women aged 35 to 54 are least confident (52 percent).

Only 43 percent of global consumers say they trust political news that they see online, despite the possibility of encountering audio, video and image deepfakes. Americans are much less trusting (32 percent).

"With half of the global population participating in elections this year, the potential influence and impact of generative AI and deepfakes demand our immediate attention," says Jumio CEO Robert Prigge. "Public faith in online information is crumbling, demanding a transparent discourse to confront this challenge and empower citizens with the tools to discern and report deepfakes. Online platforms hold a critical duty to leverage cutting-edge detection measures like multimodal, biometric-based verification systems to fortify our defenses against deepfakes influencing pivotal elections."

Globally only 43 percent have faith in their government's ability to regulate AI, this figure drops to 31 percent in the US and just 26 percent in the UK.

You can see the full results on the Jumio site.

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