The FCC has proposed a $6 million fine about the impostor who used voice-cloning technology to impersonate President Biden in a series of illegal bots during the New Hampshire primary. It’s more about robocalls than artificial intelligence, but the service is clearly positioning it as a warning to other would-be high-tech scammers.
As you may recall, in January, many voters in New Hampshire received a call purporting to be a message from the president telling them not to vote in the upcoming primary. This was, of course, a fake — a voice clone of President Biden using technology that has become widely available over the past two years.
While creating a fake voice has long been possible, productive AI platforms have made it trivial: Dozens of services offer cloned voices with minimal restrictions or oversight. You can do your own Biden voice very easily with a minute or two of his speeches, which of course are easily found online.
What you cannot do, the FCC and many law enforcement agencies have made clear, is use this fake Biden to suppress voters, through calls that were already illegal.
“We will act quickly and decisively to ensure that bad actors cannot use US telecommunications networks to facilitate the misuse of genetic AI technology to interfere in elections, defraud consumers or breach sensitive data,” said the head of the Enforcement Bureau. of FCC, Loyaan Egal. in a press release.
“Political consultant” Steve Kramer was the main perpetrator, although he enlisted the help of the shady Life Corporation (previously charged with illegal robocalls) and the phone services of the shady telcos Lingo, AKA Americatel, AKA BullsEyeComm, AKA Clear Choice Communications, AKA Excel Telecommunications, AKA Impact Telecom, AKA Matrix Business Technologies, AKA Startec Global Communications, AKA Trinsic Communications, AKA VarTec Telecom.
Kramer is “apparently” breaking several rules – but so far no criminal charges have been brought against him or his associates. This is one limitation of the FCC’s power: They must work with local or federal law enforcement to put weight behind their designation of responsibility as a specialized agency.
The $6 million fine is more like a ceiling or an aspiration. As with the FTC and others, the actual amount paid is often much less for many reasons, but even so, it is a significant amount. The next step is for Kramer to respond to the allegations, though separate actions are being taken against Lingo, or whatever they’re calling themselves now that they’ve been arrested again, which could result in fines or loss of licenses.
AI-generated voices were officially declared illegal for use in robocalls in February, after the case above raised the question of whether they were considered “artificial” — and the FCC decided, quite reasonably, that they were.
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