Image credit: Josh Kirschner/Techlicious conceptual image via ChatGPT
Picture your phone ringing with a voice that sounds like a candidate or celebrity you recognize, asking for a donation, telling you where to vote, or urging you to back a cause. The FCC is considering a request that would let political groups use prerecorded and AI-generated voices to call cellphones without first getting the recipient's permission.
Club for Growth, a right-leaning economic policy group, asked the agency in a petition filed August 31 (PDF) for relief covering noncommercial political calls to wireless numbers, and the FCC opened it for comment in a September 4 public notice. If the FCC grants the request, political callers who meet its conditions could place calls like that, and you would not need to have agreed to receive them.
What Club for Growth is asking for
Federal law prohibits calls to cellphones that use an artificial or prerecorded voice unless the recipient has given consent, with limited exceptions such as emergencies. The petition asks for a limited waiver of that consent rule and an exemption from the matching section of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the federal law that governs automated calls.
Club for Growth argues (PDF) the rules are outdated, chill political speech, and expose callers to lawsuits, with statutory damages of $500 to $1,500 per call. It points out that noncommercial automated calls to landlines are already exempt from the consent requirement and says cellphones should get the same treatment. The group says AI calling tools would let it reach voters more efficiently and in more languages, and help correct polling inaccuracies.
The petition proposes the same conditions that apply to those landline calls. Each caller could place no more than three calls to the same number in any 30-day period. Every call would need an automated opt-out, triggered by voice or keypress, offered within two seconds of the caller identifying itself; choosing it ends the call and adds the number to the caller's do-not-call list. Callers would also have to honor do-not-call requests within 10 business days, and the calls could not be charged to the person receiving them.
Why this could mean more election spam
Today, the consent requirement stands between political groups and automated voice calls to your cellphone. Lifting it for qualifying calls would make them easier to place and could lead to more political robocalls as the November 3 midterms approach. AP reports that consumer advocacy groups warn of a surge. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the only Democrat among the commission's three active members, told AP she opposes the change and expects "a tsunami of robocalls and misinformation."
AI voice tools can now produce speech that sounds almost exactly like a candidate, a celebrity, or an election official. While a legitimate campaign can authorize an AI version of its own candidate's voice, someone else can use that same technology to deceive. On your end of the line, both sound alike, so hearing a recognizable voice is not a reliable indicator of who is behind the call or whether the information you are receiving is accurate.
This scenario already played out in January, 2024 during the New Hampshire Democratic primary. Robocalls carrying a deepfake AI recording of President Joe Biden's voice encouraged voters not to vote. The FCC ultimately levied a $6 million penalty (PDF) against the person behind the calls, political consultant Steve Kramer, under the Truth in Caller ID Act based on his spoofing of the calling number.
What happens next
Reply comments on the proposed change can be filed through the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System under docket 02-278, or by mail to the FCC's Office of the Secretary, 45 L Street NE, Washington, D.C. 20554. The cutoff date for providing replies October 19, and the FCC could act afterwards.
Club for Growth has asked for expedited action ahead of the November 3 midterms. Current restrictions on prerecorded and AI-generated calls to cellphones remain in effect unless the commission issues an order granting or modifying the exemption.
If you receive unwanted or deceptive calls, they can be reported through the FCC's complaint center; the agency does not resolve individual complaints but uses them to inform policy and enforcement. Calls relating to questionable or misleading voting instructions should be reported to your state or local election officials.
