Telesign, the leading provider of customer identity and engagement solutions, today released the first set of data from its 2024 Trust Index Report, revealing artificial intelligence’s (AI) profound impact on trust in the digital world. The report highlights consumer concerns and uncertainty about how AI is being deployed, particularly regarding digital privacy, and emphasizes the need for ethical AI and machine learning (ML) use to combat fraud, hacking, and misinformation (aka “AI for good”). With a record number of voters heading to the polls in 2024, it also explores consumer attitudes about the potential misuse of AI that could undermine election confidence.
“The emergence of AI over the past year has brought the importance of trust in the digital world to the forefront,” said Christophe Van de Weyer, CEO of Telesign. “As AI continues to advance and become more accessible, it is crucial that we prioritize fraud protection solutions powered by AI to protect the integrity of personal and institutional data—AI is the best defense against AI-enabled fraud attacks. At Telesign, we are committed to leveraging AI and ML technologies to combat digital fraud, ensuring a more secure and trustworthy digital environment for all.”
AI & Fraud
The rise of AI is magnifying the importance of trust in business. Nearly all Americans (87%) believe brands are responsible for protecting users’ digital privacy. Yet, when it comes to their perception of AI’s impact on their digital privacy, there is a surprising level of ambivalence with 44% of U.S. respondents believing AI/ML will have no difference on their susceptibility to digital fraud. This comes amidst a backdrop of rising account takeover attempts and other fraud attacks fueled by generative AI.
AI & Elections
In a year when more voters than ever before will head to the polls—representing a combined population of about 49% of the people in the world—fear over how AI could impact confidence in elections is high. 72% of voters worldwide fear AI-generated content will undermine upcoming elections in their country. In the U.S., which is set to hold its presidential elections this November, 45% of respondents report seeing an AI-generated political ad or message in the last year, while 17% have seen one sometime during the last week.
AI & Deepfakes
What’s more, 75% of U.S. respondents believe misinformation has made election results inherently less trustworthy. In particular, 81% of Americans fear that misinformation from deep fakes and voice clones is negatively affecting the integrity of their elections. Fraud victims are more likely to believe they have been exposed to a deep fake or clone in the past year (21%).
The Trust Index underscores the urgent need for businesses, governments, and individuals to prioritize trust and security in the digital world. With the rapid advancement of Generative AI fueling alarming fraud trends such as an increase in account takeover attempts, it is essential that businesses use technology like AI for good to stop fraud attempts in their tracks. Despite advances in detecting and removing deepfakes, distribution of AI-generated content via fake accounts remains a key challenge. A critical way for businesses to stop the spread of fake accounts and deepfakes is to implement secure protocols for proving users are real.
Telesign connects, protects, and defends companies, customers, and the digital interactions between them. Harnessing intelligence from more than 2,200 digital identity signals, Telesign’ AI models empower companies to transact with their customers free of fear, enabling the promise of the digital economy. Telesign helps its customers prevent the transmission of 30+ million fraudulent messages each month and protects 1+ billion accounts from takeovers every year.
Methodology:
This Telesign Trust Index Survey was fielded online and reached a total of n=1,000 completions in each market. Those surveyed were adults across the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, and Brazil aged 18+; a subset of which have been victims of digital fraud within the past three years. The survey was fielded between March 11 – April 6, 2024. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percentage points for each market.
This is the first of three Telesign Trust Index data releases in 2024. To download the latest Trust Index report, click here.
