US political consultant indicted over AI-generated Biden robocalls
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[May 24, 2024]
By David Shepardson
(Reuters) - A Louisiana Democratic political consultant was indicted
over a fake robocall imitating U.S. President Joe Biden seeking to
dissuade people from voting for him in New Hampshire's Democratic
primary election, the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office said on
Thursday.
Steven Kramer, 54, faces 13 charges of felony voter suppression and 13
misdemeanor impersonation of a candidate charges after thousands of New
Hampshire residents received a robocall message asking them not to vote
until November. Kramer faces a series of initial court appearances
starting on June 14 in Merrimack Superior Court.
A lawyer for Kramer could not immediately be identified. Kramer did not
respond to a request seeking comment.
Kramer told CBS and NBC in February he had paid $500 to have the calls
sent to voters to call attention to the issue, after the calls were
discovered in January. He had worked for Biden's primary challenger,
Representative Dean Phillips, who denounced the calls
Separately, the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday proposed
to fine Kramer $6 million over the robocalls it said were using an
AI-generated deepfake audio recording of Biden’s cloned voice, saying
its rules prohibit transmission of inaccurate caller ID information.
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"When a caller sounds like a politician you know, a celebrity you like,
or a family member who is familiar, any one of us could be tricked into
believing something that is not true with calls using AI technology,"
FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said.
The FCC also proposed to fine Lingo Telecom $2 million for allegedly
transmitting the robocalls.
There is growing concern in Washington that AI-generated content could
mislead voters in the November presidential and congressional elections.
Some senators want to pass legislation before November that would
address AI threats to election integrity.
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![](../images/052424PIX/news_x54.jpg)
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a joint press conference with
Kenyan President William Ruto at the White House in Washington,
U.S., May 23, 2024. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
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"New Hampshire remains committed to ensuring that our elections
remain free from unlawful interference and our investigation into
this matter remains ongoing," Attorney General John Formella, a
Republican, said.
Formella hopes the state and federal actions "send a strong
deterrent signal to anyone who might consider interfering with
elections, whether through the use of artificial intelligence or
otherwise."
A Biden campaign spokesperson said the campaign "has assembled an
interdepartmental team to prepare for the potential effects of AI
this election, including the threat of malicious deep fakes." The
team has been in place since September "and has a wide variety of
tools at its disposal to address issues."
On Wednesday, Rosenworcel proposed requiring disclosure of content
generated by artificial intelligence (AI) in political ads on radio
and TV for both candidate and issue advertisements, but not to
prohibit any AI-generated content.
The FCC said the use of AI is expected to play a substantial role in
2024 political ads. The FCC singled out the potential for misleading
"deep fakes" which are "altered images, videos, or audio recordings
that depict people doing or saying things that did not actually do
or say, or events that did not actually occur."
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Josie Kao)
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