The Morning After: The FCC wants to make AI-voiced robocalls illegal

AI-generated voices mimicking celebrities and politicians are making it harder for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to fight robocalls. FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel wants the commission to recognize calls that use AI-generated voices as artificial, making the use of voice cloning technologies in robocalls illegal.

Under the FCC’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), artificial voice or recording calls to residences are against the law. If AI-generated voice calls are recognized as illegal under the existing law, it’ll give state attorneys general offices nationwide “new tools” to crack down on scammers.

The FCC’s proposal comes shortly after some New Hampshire residents received a call impersonating President Joe Biden, telling them not to vote in their state’s primary. A security firm performed a thorough analysis of the call and determined it was created using AI tools by a startup called ElevenLabs. The company subsequently banned the account responsible for the message.

— Mat Smith

​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

​​

The biggest stories you might have missed

Snap is recalling its Pixy drone after battery fire

Google reveals another text-to-image generative AI tool, ImageFX

Niantic is bringing an AR skateboarding game to Apple Vision Pro

Meta Quest headsets get spatial video playback, just in time for the Apple Vision Pro launch

Hulu is the latest streaming service to crack down on password sharing

Elgato introduces its first-ever HDMI 2.1 capture cards

Comcast agrees to kill misleading 10G branding

Because Comcast’s internet isn’t that much faster than rivals.

Comcast is discontinuing its Xfinity 10G Network branding to describe its internet service after a National Advertising Review Board (NARB) panel found the term could mislead consumers into thinking that Comcast’s cellular and broadband services would offer much faster speeds than current-generation networks.

Continue reading.

Google tests generative AI tools in Maps

Bots to help you get there.

Google is adding generative AI to Maps. The feature’s in early access and only available in certain areas and for select Local Guides members. It allows you to speak to the app using natural language to discover new places. Ask the app what you’re looking for, like a specific kind of restaurant, and the company’s large-language models will analyze information from all of its listings, along with insights from community members.

The recommendation engine will also recall what you’ve asked in the past, hopefully honing future suggestions.

Continue reading.

Taylor Swift and other Universal Music tracks are disappearing from TikTok

The company made good on its promise following a breakdown in negotiations.

TMA
Evan Agostini

After threatening to do so earlier this week, Universal Music Group (UMG) is pulling the catalogs of performers it represents, including Taylor Swift, Drake, Billie Eilish, The Weeknd and others. There are no longer tracks listed in the profiles of some of the world’s most notable artists, and any UMG music featured in TikTok videos will be muted going forward. Universal had previously said TikTok wanted to pay a “fraction” of the rate paid by other social media sites.

Continue reading.

Meta’s Reality Labs has its best quarter ever, making a $4 billion loss

You read that right.

TMA
JOSH EDELSON via Getty Images

This is the perfect picture for this story. Reality Labs, Meta’s division for AR, VR and the metaverse, generated more than $1 billion in revenue during the final quarter of 2023, thanks to its Quest headsets and the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. The division, however, still lost $4.6 billion in the quarter and more than $16 billion in 2023. Legs are expensive.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-fcc-wants-to-make-ai-voiced-robocalls-illegal-121559520.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-fcc-wants-to-make-ai-voiced-robocalls-illegal-121559520.html?src=rss
Created 1y | Feb 2, 2024, 12:40:09 PM


Login to add comment

Other posts in this group

Senate votes against curbing state-level AI regulation

Yesterday, the senate was poised to

Jul 1, 2025, 2:30:24 PM | Engadget
Cloudflare experiment will block AI bot scrapers unless they pay a fee

Cloudflare has rolled out a couple of new measures meant to keep AI bot crawlers at bay. To start with, every new domain customer that signs up with the company to manage their website traffic will

Jul 1, 2025, 2:30:22 PM | Engadget
The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max is on sale for $35 for Prime Day

If you already plan on using Prime Day as an excuse to upgrade your home theater, Amazon has a great deal on one of its premium streaming dongles that could be the perfect thing to complete your se

Jul 1, 2025, 2:30:21 PM | Engadget
Google Keep no longer supports the Apple Watch

Google has rolled out the latest version of Keep and, as 9to5Google has noticed, it no lon

Jul 1, 2025, 2:30:19 PM | Engadget
The best Prime Day laptop deals on MacBooks, Chromebooks, Windows machines and more

If your laptop simply isn’t cutting it anymore,

Jul 1, 2025, 2:30:18 PM | Engadget
The Amazon Echo Spot drops to a record-low price for Prime Day

It's still one week until Prime Day 2025 officially kicks off, but the sales are already here. There's deals on som

Jul 1, 2025, 2:30:16 PM | Engadget
The best Prime Day robot vacuum deals for 2025

Robot vacuums can be a big help around the house by automating a regular chore, but they can be pretty expensive. That’s why it’s a wise decision to wait for a shopping event like

Jul 1, 2025, 2:30:15 PM | Engadget