Conservative anti-tax group seeks FCC approval for AI robocalls ahead of US midterms

WASHINGTON, Oct 7 : A Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission urged the agency on Wednesday not to approve a petition to allow political AI-generated robocalls from conservative political group Club for Growth.

The group, which is spending millions of dollars ahead of the November US congressional elections, asked the FCC to allow it to make political calls to cell phones "using an artificial or prerecorded voice - including an AI-generated voice - without obtaining prior express consent."

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said that if "the FCC allows a dark money group to flood Americans' phones with AI-generated robocalls they never agreed to receive, it would bring chaos so close to Election Day." 

She added that "consumers reasonably expect the rules protecting them from unwanted robocalls to hold steady while they decide how to vote, not for the FCC to change them at the 11th hour to unleash a deluge of political AI slop on their phones."

Club for Growth President David McIntosh said in a statement that the group wants "the FCC to treat First Amendment-protected political speech the same way it already treats wireless calls about package deliveries, bank accounts, and doctor's appointments."

The group, which backs conservative economic views on taxes, regulations and cutting the size of government, plans to spend $175 million in the midterm congressional elections, it said on its website.

The group argued it is incorrect to refer to the calls as robocalls because a human initiates the dial to a cell phone and then an AI agent handles an interview.

The FCC, in describing the petition, said the system "uses a perfunctory human being for the sole purpose of clicking on a ‘send’ or similarly termed button to transmit thousands of text messages per hour."

A number of public interest groups on Monday urged the FCC not to grant the petition.

"Using robocalls, a hated form of communication, to deliver political messages, a sensitive topic almost nobody wants to hear about from AI-generated strangers, will enrage a wide swath of the 98 per cent of the country that has a cellphone," said the comment signed by groups including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Consumer Federation of America, Common Cause and Public Citizen.

The FCC is considering comments on the petition until October 19. A spokesman for FCC Chair Brendan Carr declined immediate comment.