Introduction

The origin of data used by artificial intelligence (AI) companies to train their models is murky and often controversial. The Economist highlights these concerns, and a recent YouGov poll found that some Americans are worried about their data being used without permission.

Public Opinion

28% of Americans believe that AI companies rarely or never ask for permission to use someone’s material, while 22% say that AI companies always or usually ask for permission. Interestingly, younger adults under 30 are more likely to believe that AI companies get permission compared to those 65 or older (13% vs. 4%).

Data Scraping Concerns

Data scraping from the internet is a popular method for obtaining training data but is not well-received by Americans. 44% believe that AI models should not be trained using internet data, compared to 20% who think they should. This sentiment is shared across political lines, with 43% of Democrats and 48% of Republicans opposing the use of internet data for AI training.

Legal Battles

The use of copyrighted data for AI training has sparked controversy among artists and creators. Americans are more likely to believe that creators will win lawsuits against AI companies for improper use of their works (40% vs. 18%). However, a significant portion of Americans are unsure or think both parties are equally likely to win.

Educational Differences

Americans with college degrees are more certain about the outcomes of these legal battles compared to those without a degree. Nonetheless, both groups tend to believe that copyright owners are more likely to win.

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Poll Results

• AI models are often trained on content from many different outside sources. How often do you think AI companies have permission to use this content from its copyright holders?
• Regardless of your own opinion, who do you think is more likely to win in legal battles between AI companies and owners of copyrighted material who are suing them for improper use of their content?
• Do you think that AI companies should or should not be allowed to train their models on the open internet, which includes large amounts of copyrighted data?

Methodology

The Daily Questions survey was conducted online on May 2 – 3, 2024 among 12,876 U.S. adults. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, U.S. census region, and political party. The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 1%.

Image: Getty (Weiquan Lin)

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