FCC Proposes Ban On AI-Generated Robocalls

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2024 – The Federal Communications Commission proposed new rules that would regulate artificial intelligence-generated calls and texts in a Wednesday draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

The proposed rules will amend the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to introduce new consent and identification disclosure requirements for AI-generated artificial or prerecorded voice calls, as well as autodialed text messages that include AI-generated content. 

The proposal includes an exemption to help individuals with speech or hearing disabilities communicate over the phone network using AI.

The FCC will vote on defining AI-generated calls, requiring disclosure of AI use, supporting technologies to protect consumers from unwanted AI robocalls and enhancing AI-driven telephone access for people with disabilities at its August Open Meeting.

This proposed ruling follows the FCC's ban, proposed by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in January, on using AI to clone human voices for generating robocalls.

In January, House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Rep. Frank Pallone, D-New Jersey, introduced a bill to strengthen the Federal Communications Commission’s robocall authorities. The act would eliminate the current definition of autodialers under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which guides the scope of the FCC’s robocall enforcement, and replace the term entirely with “robocall.”

“The whole of government is rightly focused on whether and how to regulate AI,” FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said in a statement on February 2. Several legislators, public interest groups and federal agencies have called for greater robocall regulation. The FCC has inquired on whether to use AI to root out robocall fraud.