Two-thirds of American adults say they are concerned about artificial intelligence being used to create sexual imagery of women, according to a poll its authors describe as the first to put a number on public opinion about it.
The survey found 67 per cent registered some or high concern about AI being used to create sexual imagery of women, and 71 per cent about AI deepfakes that sexualise children. It was published on 4 August by Women Who Tech, a non-profit network of women-led startups, and Rad Campaign, a digital agency that works for non-profits.
Both organisations campaign on this issue and the poll is their own.
Allyson Kapin, founder of Women Who Tech and a founding partner at Rad Campaign, said the results showed “policymakers and Big Tech companies are lagging far behind their own constituents and customers on this issue”. She said there was “a clear bipartisan majority for safeguards against sexual deepfakes of women and children”, adding: “Victims have waited long enough.”
Respondents who reported “some” concern are counted alongside those reporting “high” concern, so the headline numbers measure the breadth of unease.
Fieldwork ran from 13 to 18 June 2026, seven weeks before publication, among 1,015 adults aged 18 and over. Responses were collected online and weighted. The authors give a Bayesian confidence interval of 3.5 for 1,000 interviews, which they describe as roughly equivalent to a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 points at 95 per cent confidence.
The survey followed the period in which X was flooded with AI-generated sexual images produced by Grok, the chatbot built by Elon Musk’s xAI, depicting mostly women and children.
Two bills are waiting in the House of Representatives. The DEFIANCE Act, which would allow victims of sexual deepfakes to sue those who make and share them, passed the Senate unanimously in January. The ENFORCE Act, which would let prosecutors charge AI-generated child sexual abuse material as they would any other, has also cleared the Senate.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act, which requires platforms to remove non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours of a valid request, took effect on 19 May. The poll’s authors say it is too early to judge its effect.