Chuck Schumer urges FCC to block AI robocalls before elections

Chuck Schumer urges FCC to reject petition allowing AI robocalls ahead of key November midterm elections.

US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on the FCC to reject the petition as the public comment period comes to a close [File: Evan Vucci/Reuters]

United States Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York has urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not to approve a petition by the conservative group Club for Growth to allow AI-generated robocalls ahead of the November midterm elections.

“Under this change, campaigns could use their opponents’ voice to send out a message that is, at best, disingenuous and, at worst, a blatant lie,” Schumer said on Monday.

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The petition was originally filed on August 31, and the public comment period began on September 4 and expires on Monday.

Earlier this month , Anna Gomez, the Democratic member of the FCC, urged her colleagues not to allow consideration of the petition brought by the national conservative fiscal policy organisation.

Her concerns echoed Schumer’s. “[If] the FCC allows a dark money group to flood Americans’ phones with AI-generated robocalls they never agreed to receive, it would bring chaos so close to Election Day,” commissioner Gomez told the Reuters news agency at the time.

There is precedent for the concerns being raised. In the 2024 presidential election, ahead of the New Hampshire primary, voters received an AI-generated version in the voice of President Joe Biden, the then Democratic incumbent, telling them not to vote. The FCC said that a political consultant working with longshot primary challenger Dean Phillips was responsible.

At the state level, Louisiana, Tennessee and Vermont passed laws this year requiring disclosures for AI-generated campaign phone calls. While robocalls have been used in political campaigns for years, FCC rules prohibit such calls to cellphones without prior consent, but the restrictions do not apply to landlines.

Club for Growth’s president, David McIntosh, in a statement earlier this month, said that the group is asking for “the FCC to treat First Amendment-protected political speech the same way it already treats wireless calls about package deliveries, bank accounts, and doctor’s appointments”.

“There is no one at the FCC that has expressed any interest in moving to an order on this or any of the petitions, and there are zero plans to do so. The FCC seeks comment on petitions that come in as a matter of normal procedure,” a spokesperson for the FCC told Al Jazeera.

查克·舒默敦促联邦通信委员会驳回允许在11月中期选举前使用人工智能自动拨号电话的请愿书。

美国参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默呼吁联邦通信委员会驳回该请愿书，公众意见征询期即将结束。[图片：埃文·武奇/路透社]

美国参议院民主党领袖、纽约州参议员查克·舒默敦促联邦通信委员会（FCC）不要批准保守派团体“增长俱乐部”提出的请愿，该请愿旨在允许在11月中期选举前使用人工智能生成的自动语音电话。

舒默周一表示：“根据这项规定，竞选活动可以利用对手的声音来散布信息，这种信息充其量是虚伪的，最坏的情况是彻头彻尾的谎言。”

吉米·坎摩尔因与联邦通信委员会发生冲突，将塔拉里科的参议院采访转移到YouTube播出（共4条，此为第1条）。

美国联邦通信委员会主席表示，备受争议的特朗普竞选广告并未引发担忧（共4条，此为第2条）

美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）四名民主党成员中的第三名警告称，人工智能自动语音电话存在虚假信息风险。

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该请愿书最初于 8 月 31 日提交，公众评议期从 9 月 4 日开始，将于周一结束。

本月初，联邦通信委员会民主党成员安娜·戈麦斯敦促她的同事们不要允许审议全国保守派财政政策组织提出的请愿书。

她的担忧与舒默的担忧不谋而合。“如果联邦通信委员会允许一个‘黑钱’组织用人工智能生成的自动语音电话淹没美国人的手机，而他们从未同意接收这些电话，那么在选举日临近之际，这将造成混乱，”委员戈麦斯当时告诉路透社。

这些担忧并非史无前例。在2024年总统大选期间，新罕布什尔州初选前，选民们收到了一段由人工智能生成的语音信息，语音内容是时任民主党总统乔·拜登的声音，劝阻他们不要投票。美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）表示，这段语音信息是由一位与初选挑战者迪恩·菲利普斯合作的政治顾问发布的，菲利普斯当时胜算渺茫。

今年，路易斯安那州、田纳西州和佛蒙特州通过了州级法律，要求披露人工智能生成的竞选电话信息。虽然自动拨号电话在政治竞选中已使用了多年，但联邦通信委员会（FCC）的规定禁止在未经事先同意的情况下拨打手机，但该限制不适用于固定电话。

“增长俱乐部”主席大卫·麦金托什在本月初的一份声明中表示，该组织要求“联邦通信委员会以对待包裹递送、银行账户和医生预约等无线通话的方式，对待受第一修正案保护的政治言论”。

美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）发言人告诉半岛电视台：“FCC内部没有人表示有兴趣就此事或任何其他请愿书发布命令，也没有任何相关计划。FCC征求各方对收到的请愿书的意见是正常的程序。”