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Q&A: Do AI and bogus respondents threaten polling’s future?

Pew Research Center · David Kent · last updated

Courtney Kennedy, vice president of methods and innovation, answers some common questions about the current polling landscape in the U.S.

At first glance, recent news stories may appear to spell doom for the polling industry.
Instead of asking real people for their opinions, some companies are asking artificial intelligence what people would think. In other cases, bad actors are using AI to fake survey responses at scale. Some polls also face serious data quality issues because of bogus respondents who don’t take surveys in good faith.

It can be difficult for people outside the polling industry to understand what’s going on and which polls to trust. In this Q&A, Courtney Kennedy, Pew Research Center’s vice president of methods and innovation, answers some common questions about the current polling landscape in the United States.

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