The FCC has proposed a $6 million fine against a fraudster who used voice cloning technology to impersonate President Biden in a series of illegal robocalls during the New Hampshire primary. This is more about robocalls than AI, but the FCC is clearly positioning this as a warning to other tech scammers.
As you may recall, in January, many voters in New Hampshire received a phone call purporting to be from the president telling them not to vote in the upcoming primary. Of course, this was a fake, a clone of President Biden's voice using technology that has become widespread in recent years.
Creating a fake voice has been possible for some time, but AI generation platforms have made it easier. Dozens of services offer voice clones with little restriction or oversight. Of course, you can easily create your own Biden voice by listening to a minute or two of one of Biden's speeches, which are easily found online.
What the FCC and several law enforcement agencies have made clear is what not to do is use fake Biden to suppress voters through robocalls, which were already illegal.
“We will act swiftly and decisively to ensure bad actors cannot exploit America's telecommunications networks to facilitate the misuse of generative AI technologies to disrupt elections, deceive consumers, or compromise sensitive data,” FCC Enforcement Director Royan Egal said in a press release.
“Political consultant” Steve Kramer was the main perpetrator, but he also worked with the shady Life Corporation (previously indicted for illegal robocalls) and the shady telecommunications company Ringo (aka Americatel, aka Bulls.com, Telecommunications, aka Impact Telecom, aka Matrix Business Technologies, aka Startec Global Communications, aka Trinsic Communications, aka VarTec Telecom.
While Cramer “clearly” violated several rules, no criminal charges have been brought against him or his associates to date. This is the limit of the FCC's authority, and as a professional agency, the FCC must cooperate with local and federal law enforcement agencies to give weight to liability determinations.
The $6 million fine is more of a cap or aspiration. As with the FTC, the actual amount paid is often much less for a variety of reasons, but it's still a significant amount. The next step is for Kramer to respond to the allegations, but there are other actions being taken against Ringo, or whatever they name themselves now that they've been arrested again, which could lead to fines and loss of license. There is sex.
AI-generated voices were officially declared illegal to use in robocalls in February after the incidents mentioned above raised questions about whether they counted as “synthetic,” and the FCC, quite wisely, decided that they did.
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