Attorneys General from 26 different states have filed a comment with the Federal Communications Commission, taking the position that artificial intelligence tools that mimic human voices are a form of an artificial voice as defined under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
What’s Going On: The FCC announced late last year that it was going to start investigating how artificial intelligence is impacting the evolution of illegal robocalls and robotexts, with the intention of possibly amending the TCPA to further protect consumers.
What They Said: AI has the potential to make phone scams more sophisticated and believable, the AGs wrote in their comment. The voices of celebrities and family members are being copied and used to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers, the AGs claim.
- Classifying AI voices as artificial voices under the TCPA would be consistent with how the FCC has treated previous technological developments, the AGs wrote.
- “If any TCPA-regulated entity wants to call a consumer utilizing such technology, it should follow the TCPA’s requirements, including those with respect to prior express written consent,” the AGs wrote.
Why This Matters: The federal government does not yet have a comprehensive plan for how to regulate the use of artificial intelligence, and in that vacuum, agencies and regulators are going to step in and try to protect consumers as best they can. The FCC is trying to keep up with the pace the communication and communication tools are evolving, and they need to move faster if they don’t want to fall too far behind.
The Last Word: “AI technology presents opportunities for new levels of deception by bad actors,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta. “The FCC should take this opportunity to underscore that existing laws, like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, can be used to protect consumers against this threat. Classifying AI-generated human voices as a type of artificial voice is a step in the right direction in preventing consumers from receiving unwanted and potentially dangerous robocalls.”
