FCC Hypes New AI Voice Order
Following news reports that a robocall using an AI-generated voice of President Joe Biden had been sent to scores of New Hampshire voters last month, the FCC released a Declaratory Ruling on February 8, 2024 that requires companies using AI-generated voices in marketing phone calls to have prior express written consent from the recipient of the call.
The Declaratory Ruling received attention-grabbing headlines worldwide with news outlets reporting that use of AI voices had been “banned” or made “illegal.” The suggestion that the FCC has entirely prohibited the use of AI voices was fostered by a (misleading) FCC press release that exclaimed “FCC MAKES AI-GENERATED VOICES IN ROBOCALLS ILLEGAL.” The reality of the FCC’s Declaratory Ruling is, in practice, far more mundane and far less newsworthy.
As the Ruling itself explains, what the FCC actually did is merely:
confirm that the TCPA’s restrictions on the use of “artificial or prerecorded voice” encompass current AI technologies that resemble human voices and/or generate call content using a prerecorded voice. Therefore, callers must obtain prior express consent from the called party before making a call that utilizes artificial or prerecorded voice simulated or generated through AI technology. AI technologies such as “voice cloning” fall within the TCPA’s existing prohibition on artificial or prerecorded voice messages because this technology artificially simulates a human voice. Voice cloning and other similar technologies emulate real or artificially created human voices for telephone calls to consumers. They are “artificial” voice messages because a person is not speaking them, and, as a result, when used they represent the types of calls the TCPA seeks to protect consumers from.
The idea that an AI voice is governed by the TCPA’s prior express written consent requirement is hardly surprising. In passing the TCPA all the way back in 1991, Congress had already declared that calls using an “an artificial or prerecorded voice” were prohibited unless the caller had prior express consent. 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1). And, the FCC’s rules have consistently required prior express consent to use artificial voices. Indeed, since October 2013, the FCC’s rules have made clear that the prior express written consent is required to use an artificial voice to make telemarketing calls to both residential and mobile phones. Since no reasonable person has argued that AI-generated voices are not artificial, the FCC’s Declaratory Ruling amounts to little more than a clear application of the FCC’s existing rules under the TCPA.
You can review the full text of FCC’s Declaratory Ruling here: https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-makes-ai-generated-voices-robocalls-illegal
