San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Feds targeting AI scam calls
Spam or robocalls that use artificial-intelligence generated voices will be banned in the United States after a unanimous ruling from the Federal Communications Commission that aims to crack down on the emerging technology used in scams and efforts to mislead voters.
The ruling comes after a company apparently using artificial intelligence faked President Joe Biden’s voice during the New Hampshire primary to encourage people not to vote.
Last month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office urged the FCC to crack down on robocalls, including those using AI-generated voices, noting they are the No. 1 consumer complaint made to the Federal Trade Commission year after year. Bonta and 25 other state attorneys general were responding to an inquiry from the federal agency about how to prevent AI being used in scam calls and texts. The attorneys general suggested fake voices could be regulated under existing law.
Bonta’s office said it was pleased in an email Thursday, adding that “Today’s decision is important for consumer protection and election integrity. Outlawing AI-generated robocalls is a step in the right direction in preventing consumers from receiving unwanted and potentially dangerous robocalls, and in this case, to quell the spread of disinformation.”
The calls are not just a nuisance. The FCC estimated that fraudulent calls and texts led to more than $1.13 billion in losses across the country in 2022. The number of phone scam victims in the U.S. nearly tripled between 2017 and 2022, according to a Truecaller/ Harris Poll.
In the ruling announced today, the FCC said AI-generated voice calls fell under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a 1991 law aimed at preventing unwanted calls using prerecorded voices. Although that law passed well before the current AI boom, the new technology falls under its parameters, the agency said.
Bonta and 50 other attorneys general announced a task force to investigate the New Hampshire robocalls earlier this week. They said the calls were made using services from two Texas companies and came at the behest of New Hampshire political officials.
In a statement, FCC Chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel condemned the technology’s use to confuse voters, but also its use for other scams such as using AI-generated voices to fool elderly people into thinking their grandchildren are in danger and in need of help, commonly called the “grandparents scam.” One Bay Area family nearly fell victim to a similar scam using AI-voice
Alex Wong/Associated Press cloning that tried to bilk them out of more than $15,000.
The ruling from the FCC means the agency can fine companies that use AI voices in calls and block the telecommunications providers that carry the calls. State attorneys general can also sue under this authority, as can private attorneys.
Individuals can recover $1,500 per call under existing federal law, and companies can face significantly steeper fines.
Blocking spam calls at their point of origin, AIgenerated or not, has long been a point of attack for authorities confronting a growing problem that often involves calls coming from overseas.
Last year, the FCC tried to crack down on these kinds of calls coming from overseas, putting pressure on telecom companies to stop them before they reach consumers or face fines and penalties.
Bonta and other law enforcement officials in 2022 demanded the FCC turn off that spigot of spam and scam calls they said originated from overseas but that appear to come from U.S. numbers to trick unsuspecting citizens into handing over valuable personal information or money.
Phone scams can be extremely convincing when aided by AI technology, but there are a few straightforward strategies to avoid being ripped off.