No one likes robocalls in the first place, but using AI-generated voices of people like President Biden makes them even worse. Therefore, the FCC is proposing to make it fundamentally illegal to use voice-cloning technology in robocalls, making it easier to charge the operators of these scams.
You might ask why this is necessary if robocalls are illegal in the first place. In fact, some automated calls are necessary, even desirable, and only when a calling feature is found to be breaking the law in some way does it become a matter for the authorities.
For example, about the recent Biden fake calls in New Hampshire telling people not to votethe attorney general there can (and did) say with confidence that the messages “appear to be an illegal attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire presidential primary and suppress New Hampshire voters.”
Under the law there, voter suppression is illegal and so when they find the perpetrators (and I keep emailing them to see if they have, by the way) that will be what they are charged with, among other things. . However, it remains that a crime must be committed, or reasonably suspected of having been committed, for the authorities to intervene.
If the use of voice-cloning technology in robocalls, like the one apparently used on Biden, is itself illegal, that makes charging robocallers that much easier.
“That’s why the FCC is taking steps to recognize this emerging technology as illegal under current law, giving our partners in Attorneys General offices across the country new tools they can use to fight these scams and protect consumers,” said FCC Chair Jessica. Rosenworcel in a press release. They previously announced that they were looking into this issue when the problem was relatively new.
The FCC already uses the Telephone Consumer Protection Act as a basis for charging spammers and other phone scammers. The TCPA already prohibits “artificial” voices, but it’s not clear that cloned voices fall under that category. It is arguable, for example, that a company could use the voice of its CEO for legitimate business purposes.
But the fact is that the legal applications of the technology are fewer in number and less immediately significant than the illegal applications. Therefore, the FCC is proposing to issue a Declaratory Ruling that AI-based voice cloning causes a call to fall under the “artificial” title.
The law here is repeating itself rapidly as all telephone, messaging and voice production technologies evolve. So don’t be surprised if it’s not entirely clear what is and isn’t illegal, or why, despite being obviously illegal, some calls or scams seem to work with impunity. It is a work in progress.
Modernize: FCC spokesman Will Wiquist told me that procedurally, this proposal will be circulated internally and voted on at the Commissioners’ discretion. It will only be public when and if approved.
