The Chairman Of The United States FCC Proposes AI Phone Calls As Illegal Actions

Chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Jessica Rosenworcel (photo: x @JRosenworcelFC)

JAKARTA - The chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Jessica Rosenworcel, has proposed considering calls featuring votes generated by artificial intelligence (AI) as illegal. This is subject to regulations and sanctions regulated in the Phone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in the announcement on January 31.

The announcement follows false messages generated using AI to emulate US President Joe Biden's voice, which advises residents of New Hampshire not to vote in the state's preliminary elections.

Automatic messages featuring Biden's voice were generated to interfere in the 2024 presidential election, but the state attorney general's office denounced the call as misinformation.

Rosenworcel's proposal aims to ban robocall calls under TCPA, an 1991 law governing political and automatic marketing calls made without the recipient's consent. The main goal of TCPA is to protect consumers from unwanted and annoying communications, such as unsolicited telemarketing calls and automatic messages.

Such calls have increased rapidly in recent years, with technology now able to mislead consumers by imitating the voices of celebrities, political figures, and even family members.

By implementing this proposal, the FCC will give the state attorney general across the country additional resources to take firm action against those responsible for this malicious robocall call and enforce legal consequences.

In November 2023, the FCC started an Information Search Notification to gather information about the handling of illegal robocall calls and the potential involvement of AI. The agency asked about the role of AI in fraud, imitating familiar voices, and whether to be regulated in TCPA. In addition, the FCC seeks insight into how AI can be used positively, such as recognizing and preventing illegal robocall calls.

The White House released a fact sheet with key action on AI on January 29, three months after Biden's executive order on AI. The fact sheet notes "substantial progress" towards the president's mandate to "protect Americans from potential AI system risks."

Deepfake has raised concerns about content generated by AI, where the World Economic Forum highlights the negative impact of AI technology in its 19th Global Risk Report. Canadian Security Intelligence Service Canada's main national intelligence agency also raised concerns about a disinformation campaign conducted on the internet using deepfake AI.

US legislators have urged legislation that has made deepfake image production a criminal act following the widespread spread of explicit fake photos from Taylor Swift.