On artificial intelligence: In Minnesota bipartisan majorities agree on proposals for regulation

A new Program for Public Consultation (PPC) survey in Minnesota reveals common ground between Democrats and Republicans on proposals to regulate artificial intelligence.
 
Large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans favored the federal government:
• creating a federal agency devoted to monitoring and regulating AI
• requiring existing and new AI programs that make critical decisions to pass a government test (e.g. health insurance claims, hiring, etc.)
• requiring deepfakes to be labelled as such, and prohibiting their use in political campaign ads
 
Large bipartisan majorities favored the U.S. participating in international efforts to regulate AI by:
• creating an international treaty to regulate large-scale AI programs
• creating an international treaty to ban the use of weapons that can fire on targets without a direct human command
 
The domestic proposals tested are derived from Congressional legislation, and the international ones come from international organizations, including the United Nations and Red Cross.
 
Steven Kull, Director of PPC, noted, “We’re surveying to determine how much common ground there is in Minnesota, and other battleground states and districts. In this first survey, it is clear there is broad agreement among Democrats and Republicans that the federal government should play an active role in regulating artificial intelligence.”
 
Common Ground in the Battlegrounds?
 
This survey release is the first in the Common Ground in the Battlegrounds? survey series being conducted by the Program for Public Consultation (PPC) in the run-up to the November election in 11 competitive states and 28 competitive U.S. House districts.
 
Surveys on 14 additional topics will be released on a rolling basis between now and the mid-term elections, covering over 100 specific policy questions. The policies – most of which are pending in Congress – were chosen because surveys by PPC and others consistently found majority Republican and Democratic agreement nationally. The results for all individual states and districts can be found here.
 
New federal agency to oversee AI
 
A majority of Democrats (86%) and Republicans (75%) favored creating a new federal agency to, “monitor new AI programs and try to anticipate potential problems, define best practices for developing and using AI programs, make policy recommendations, and enforce regulations” (overall 80%).
 
Bipartisan majorities were in favor in all competitive states and districts surveyed, as well as nationally.
 
Regulating AI programs that make critical decisions
 
Bipartisan majorities favored two proposals to regulate, “AI programs that make decisions that can have significant impacts on people (e.g. in health insurance claims, loan applications, hiring, etc.),” that would help ensure they, “follow regulations, have data privacy and security protections, and do not have unintended biases.”
 
“For new AI programs, require they first pass a government-designed test.” (Favored: Democrats 86%, Republicans 80%, overall 81%)
 
“For AI programs already in use, allow the government to audit them.” (Favored: Democrats 77%, Republicans 74%, overall 72%)
 
Bipartisan majorities were in favor of these policies in all competitive states and districts surveyed, as well as nationally.



Regulating deepfakes

Bipartisan majorities favored two new rules for AI-created images, audio and videos, also known as deepfakes.
 
“Require that any deepfake image or video distributed publicly – e.g. posted online or shown on TV – must have a label that states that it is not real and was generated by AI.” (Favored: Democrats 87%, Republicans 86%, overall 85%)
 
“Prohibit political campaigns, including PACs, from using deepfakes in their campaign advertisements.” (Favored: Democrats 83%, Republicans 76%, overall 78%)
 
Bipartisan majorities were in favor of these policies in all competitive states and districts surveyed, as well as nationally.
 
International treaty to regulate large-scale AI
 
Bipartisan majorities favored, “the US actively working with other nations to create an international treaty to regulate large-scale AI programs.” (Favored: Democrats 83%, Republicans 75%, overall 76%)
 
Bipartisan majorities were in favor in all competitive states and districts surveyed, as well as nationally.
 
Banning the use of fully autonomous weapons
 
Bipartisan majorities favored “the US actively working with other nations to create an international treaty that would prohibit the development and use of AI-powered weapons that can fire on targets without a direct human command.” (Favored: Democrats 85%, Republicans 80%, overall 80%)
 
Bipartisan majorities were in favor in all competitive states and districts surveyed, as well as nationally.
 
MORE INFORMATION

• Minnesota + National Questionnaire with Toplines, Crosstabs and Methodology
• All Battleground State and District Results

Program for Public Consultation
The Program for Public Consultation (PPC), affiliated with the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, develops and conducts public consultation surveys, in which respondents are informed about and deliberate on policy solutions being proposed by elected officials, and give their recommendations. It  seeks to improve democratic governance by consulting representative samples of citizens on key public policy proposals, and sharing its findings with officials in government, the media, other academics, and the general public.
 
Civic Innovation Center
The Civic Innovation Center (CivIC) at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy works to strengthen the foundations of civic health. It contributes to important debates about civic education, civic engagement, and needed democratic reforms in the state of Maryland and nationwide, in partnership with other BIG 10 universities. It works to build the connective tissue that brings together students, scholars and practitioners to help elevate the UMD community’s contribution to our wider democracy.
 
Voice of the People
Voice Of the People (VOP) is a nonpartisan organization working to re-anchor our democracy in its founding principles by giving ‘We the People’ a greater and more effective voice in government. It champions innovative methods and technology that enable the American people to play a role in the policymaking process and provide policymakers with a more accurate understanding of the views of their constituents.