The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday finalized a $6 million fine on a political consultant Fake robocalls that mimicked President Biden's voiceUrged New Hampshire voters not to vote in that state's Democratic primary.
In May, Louisiana Democratic political consultant Steven Kramer was indicted in New Hampshire for calls that appeared to Biden asks residents not to vote until NovemberCramer had worked for Biden's main rival, Representative Dean Phillips, who denounced the calls.
In January, Cramer told the media that he had paid $500 to send a call to voters to draw attention to the threat of artificial intelligence in the election campaign.
The FCC said the calls were originated using a Deepfake audio recordings generated by AI It was intended to sound like Biden's voice.
FCC rules prohibit the transmission of false caller ID information. The commission said Kramer must pay the fine within 30 days or the case will be referred to the Justice Department for collection.
Kramer or his spokesman could not immediately be reached.
“It’s now cheap and easy to use artificial intelligence to clone voices and flood us with fake sounds and images,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “By illegally adopting the likeness of a familiar person, this technology could illegally interfere with elections. We must call it out when we see it and use every tool at our disposal to stop this fraud.”
In August, Lingo Telecom agreed to pay a $1 million fine after the FCC broadcast a New Hampshire fraudulent robocall.
The FCC said that under the agreement, Lingo will implement a compliance plan that will require strict adherence to FCC caller ID authentication rules.
In July, the commission voted to require political ads broadcast on radio and television to disclose whether the content is generated by AI. That proposal is still pending.
