New AI robocall protections

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed a new set of rules aimed at protecting consumers from unwanted and illegal AI-generated robocalls and texts.

From now on, the FCC wants AI callers to identify themselves as AI, at the beginning of calls— with a statement like “I am not a real person”---with those who fail to do so, facing hefty fines.

This proposed new rule, builds on the existing one, which was brought in, in February after a robocall faked Joe Biden's voice to spread political misinformation around the state of New Hampshire, and bans robocalls unless the consumer has given prior consent. It’s designed to give people clear information about the artificial nature of the call, providing transparency and potentially stopping fraud.

The FCC classifies a robocall or robotext as something that uses computational technology, ML, Large Language Models (LLMs), and predictive algorithms to process natural language and create voice or text to communicate with consumers.