Company Fined $1m for Fake Joe Biden AI Calls

A US firm behind AI-generated calls mimicking Joe Biden faces a hefty $1m penalty for misleading New Hampshire voters.

Lingo Telecom, a voice service provider, agreed on August 21 to a settlement with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over transmitting spoofed robocalls that used generative AI voice cloning technology to spread disinformation during the 2024 New Hampshire primary election.

Political Consultant Directs Fake Biden Calls

On January 21, 2024, thousands of New Hampshire voters received phone messages featuring a voice that mimicked Joe Biden, falsely suggesting that participating in the state’s presidential primary would prevent them from voting in the November general election.

The calls were directed by a political consultant named Steve Kramer.

He told the media that his action was not intended to interfere in the local primary election but to highlight the potential dangers of AI and spur lawmakers into action.

He used Lingo Telecom’s technology and reportedly hired New Orleans street magician Paul Carpenter to perform the fake Joe Biden voice using generative AI.

Lingo Telecom Forced to Implement a Compliance Plan

The company will pay a $1m civil penalty, down from an initial $2m suggested by the regulator.

It will also have to implement a compliance plan requiring strict adherence to the FCC’s Secure Telephone Identity Revisited and Signature-Based Handling of Asserted Information Using Tokens (STIR/SHAKEN), a set of caller ID authentication rules to fight against ID spoofing.

The company had earlier said it strongly disagreed with the FCC’s action, calling it an attempt to impose new rules retroactively.

Political Consultant Faces $6m Fine and Seven Years in Jail

In a public statement, FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief, Loyaan Egal, said the combination of caller ID spoofing and generative AI voice-cloning technology posed a significant threat “whether at the hands of domestic operatives seeking political advantage or sophisticated foreign adversaries conducting malign influence or election interference activities.”

Robert Weissman, the co-president of NGO Public Citizen, who commended the FCC for this case, said it illustrates how such deepfakes pose “an existential threat to our democracy.”

Steve Kramer still faces a proposed $6m FCC fine and could spend up to seven years in prison on a charge of voter suppression and a sentence of up to one year on a charge of impersonating a candidate.