AI Polls Masquerade as Real Polls

Companies are using large language models to simulate survey respondents and then publish or feed those outputs into media stories as if they were real‑world poll results. These synthetic samples can replicate toplines cheaply but introduce hard‑to‑detect biases and are often reported without disclosure. — Undisclosed synthetic polling threatens the legitimacy of survey evidence, can mislead journalists and voters, and demands new disclosure and provenance norms for public opinion data.