WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) released the statement below after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared the use of artificial intelligence-generated voice technology in robocalls to be illegal under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. In November 2023, Senator Klobuchar called on the FCC to take action to protect Americans from AI voice cloning scams.
“Fraudsters are using artificial intelligence voice cloning technology to deceive voters, impersonate public figures, and trick people into giving up their personal information or money. As these tools become more sophisticated, I’ve been calling for federal action to prevent the exploitative use of this powerful technology. This unanimous ruling by the FCC is a big step toward protecting Americans and holding scammers accountable, but more needs to be done to prevent the fraudulent use of artificial intelligence. I’m pushing to pass my bipartisan bill to ban deceptive artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes in our elections and counter the spread of election-related disinformation, and I will continue working across the aisle to secure additional common sense guardrails so our country can benefit from the best of artificial intelligence while mitigating the risks.”
Klobuchar’s bipartisan Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act would build on this progress and more broadly prohibit deceptive AI-generated audio, images, or video of federal candidates from influencing an election.
Klobuchar, Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, and senior member of the Senate Committees on the Judiciary and Commerce, Science, and Transportation, has long been committed to combating fraud and addressing the threat of misleading AI-generated content.
In November 2023, Klobuchar and Collins called on the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to continue efforts to prevent artificial intelligence voice cloning scams in order to protect Americans from this growing fraud.
Klobuchar is a co-sponsor of the FCC Legal Enforcement Act, legislation that would provide the FCC with litigation enforcement authority for violations contained in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act regarding robocalls.
In January 2024, Klobuchar and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) called on the Election Assistance Commission to assist state and local election officials in combating the spread of AI-generated disinformation about our elections. Their letter followed the reports of AI-generated deepfake robocalls using the President’s voice to discourage voting in the New Hampshire primary election.
In November 2023, Klobuchar questioned witnesses on how criminals are using deceptive tactics through robocalls to defraud Americans across the United States at a Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband hearing titled “Protecting Americans from Robocalls”.
In September 2023, Klobuchar and Collins, along with Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Chris Coons (D-DE), introduced the Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act, bipartisan legislation to ban the use of AI to generate materially deceptive content falsely depicting federal candidates to influence federal elections. This legislation has also been cosponsored by Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE).
Klobuchar is a lead sponsor of the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act of 2023. The NO FAKES Act is a bipartisan proposal that would protect the voice and visual likeness of all individuals from unauthorized recreations from generative AI.
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