Artificial intelligence is one of the most consequential technologies of our lifetime.
Its potential to improve healthcare, streamline small businesses, ease the burden of daily tasks, and expand access to information is real — and independent voters know it. But in our latest wave of the AI & Main Street focus group series, a single concern kept rising to the surface, louder than any other: Americans can no longer tell what's real.
That's not a small thing. And for the roughly 45% of Americans who identify as independent voters — the largest and fastest-growing bloc in the electorate — it strikes at something fundamental: their ability to make informed choices.
The Promise Is Real. So Is the Fear.
The 15 independent voters who participated in Wave 9 of our focus group research came from ten states, ranging in age from 19 to 42, and spanning the full spectrum of independent-leaning affiliations. They are not AI skeptics by default. Hillary, a 32-year-old entrepreneur from Tennessee, uses AI to automate her businesses and cut personnel costs. Kyle, a 28-year-old healthcare worker from Virginia, sees AI transforming how patients interact with medicine. Tabitha from Indiana has given her AI a name — it's learned her, she says, and responds to her personally.
These are not people who want to shut the technology down. They want it to work for them. They see AI as a potential engine of the modernized American dream — a tool that could help everyday people save time, access opportunity, and build something better for themselves and their families.
But then comes the caveat. And it keeps coming.
"Can We Tell What's Real Anymore?"
Thomas, a 42-year-old independent voter from Ohio, put it plainly: "They got gorillas climbing up buildings in Chicago and you're just like, is that real or not? I just don't like AI. It makes it more complicated."
Kameron, a 19-year-old from Texas, framed the stakes even more directly: AI can create fake images and documents capable of destroying the reputations of thousands — even millions — of people. Abdou, 40, from Oregon, asked the question that hung over the entire conversation: "Can we start differentiating the difference between what's real and what's not?"
Across questions 2, 3, and 5 of our research, the inability to distinguish real from AI-generated content emerged as the single most repeated concern among participants. This isn't abstract worry about some distant future. These are people scrolling through Facebook and TikTok right now, seeing videos that may or may not be real, reading information that may or may not have been manufactured, and losing confidence in what they once trusted.
That erosion of trust is the story. And it's not just a partisan one.
A Threat to the Choices That Define Democracy
Here's why this matters so much for independent voters specifically: independents are, by definition, people who make their own choices. They're not relying on party infrastructure to tell them what to think. They evaluate candidates, issues, and ideas based on the information available to them. When that information becomes untrustworthy — when deepfakes proliferate, when manufactured content floods social feeds, when distinguishing a real video from an AI-generated one requires forensic expertise — the very foundation of independent political judgment is compromised.
Choice requires reliable information. The modernized American dream — one where individuals chart their own course, free from manipulation and beholden to no party boss or elite interest — is only possible when people can trust what they see and read. AI-generated misinformation doesn't just confuse; it corrodes the conditions that make genuine choice possible.
This is not a hypothetical risk. It is happening now, in the social media feeds of everyday Americans, and it is actively eroding their ability to trust what they see.
Independent Voters Are Asking for Something Specific
What's striking about these focus group responses is how concrete the asks are. Mckenzie, a 33-year-old from Alaska, said she wants labels on every AI picture, video, and piece of content — "it's so confusing to look at something and wonder if it's real." Abdou wants fact-checking technology that can "weed out the right type of information versus the manufactured ones." Alex from Illinois wants AI-generated content to show its references.
These aren't calls to ban AI. They're calls for accountability infrastructure — the kind of guardrails that make it possible for ordinary people to navigate an information environment that has become, in their words, too complicated.
What This Means for Policymakers and Leaders
Independent voters are not anti-technology. They are pro-accountability. They believe AI holds genuine promise — for their businesses, their healthcare, their daily lives. But they also believe, with near unanimity, that the people currently making decisions about AI are doing so for themselves and not for Main Street.
That perception gap is an opportunity. Leaders who take seriously the real, lived concerns of independent voters about AI-generated misinformation — and who come to the table with real, actionable proposals — will find a receptive audience. Independent voters are not looking for someone to fear-monger about technology. They are looking for someone who understands that trust is fragile, that the modernized American dream depends on reliable information, and that choice means nothing if you can't trust what you're choosing between.
The independent voter is watching. And right now, they're not sure what's real.
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