On August 7, 2024 the Federal Communications Commission proposed new consumer protections against AI-generated robocalls and robotexts.  The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking broadens the FCC’s efforts to address AI’s impact on the rights of consumers under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

The NPRM seeks comment on the definition of AI-generated calls, requiring callers to disclose their use of AI-generated calls and text messages, supporting technologies that alert and protect consumers from unwanted and illegal AI robocalls, and protecting positive uses of AI to help people with disabilities utilize the telephone networks.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposes to define “AI-generated calls,” and introduces such a definition that would include calls using artificial intelligence generate voice or text.  For purposes of identifying the types of calls that would be subject to the new proposed rules, the FCC proposes to define “AI generated call” as “a call that uses any technology or tool to generate an artificial or prerecorded voice or a text using computational technology or other machine learning, including predictive algorithms, and large language models, to process natural language and produce voice or text content to communicate with a called party over an outbound telephone call.”

The definition proposed by the FCC is broad enough to encompass existing and evolving AI technologies.  Importantly, it is limited to outbound calls.  AI technologies that are used to answer inbound calls are not within the scope of the proposed definition of “AI-generated calls.”

“We believe this definition is consistent with federal and state AI definitions cited in the AI NOI,

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