To make robocalls seem like Vice President Joe Biden, Steven Kramer utilized voice cloning artificial intelligence.
During the New Hampshire primaries, political consultant Steve Kramer was responsible for a series of illegal robocalls that were made utilizing deepfake artificial intelligence technology and caller ID spoofing. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has formally levied its entire suggested penalties against Kramer. An FCC statement indicates that Kramer is required to pay fines totaling $6 million within the next thirty days; else, the Department of Justice will be responsible for collection.
Kramer is accused of violating the Truth in Caller ID Act, which was enacted in 2009 and forbids individuals from “knowingly transmitting misleading or inaccurate caller identification information with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value.” According to the records of the legislative process, Kramer was found to have committed this offense. The regulation was enacted before the widespread use of artificial intelligence, but in February of this year, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted to apply it to deep fakes.
Residents of New Hampshire received fraudulent robocalls that had pre-recorded audio of Vice President Joe Biden’s voice. These calls were made utilizing deepfake artificial intelligence technology in the run-up to the presidential primary election in 2024. According to a previous story from CBS New York, the bogus President Biden advised voters not to cast their ballots in the upcoming primary election by stating, “Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.” Based on the information provided by the New York Times, the robocalls were fabricated in such a way that they gave the impression of coming from the former chairwoman of the Democratic Party in New Hampshire.
In order to create the fake recordings, Kramer enlisted the services of Paul Carpenter, a magician from New Orleans who was, in fact, a real magician. Using an artificial intelligence voice generator known as ElevenLabs, Carpenter demonstrated to NBC News how he created the deepfake audio recordings of Vice President Joe Biden. According to him, the recordings were created in a span of approximately twenty minutes. Carpenter claims that Kramer paid him through Venmo, and that he believed the work he was doing by President Biden’s campaign was permitted by the political campaign. From that point forward, Eleven Labs has terminated Carpenter’s account.
Kramer asserts that he made the robocalls in order to bring attention to the implications of the technology and the ways in which it may be abused. According to the political strategist, his apparent experiment only cost him $500, but it resulted in a significant return on investment. “For me to do that and get exposure worth five million dollars, it is not for me,” Kramer said in an interview with CBS New York. “In order to let the regulations to play themselves out or at least start playing themselves out, I chose to remain anonymous. There is no need for me to be renowned. I have no intention of doing it. I had the objective of making a difference in the world.
Kramer is not only facing a significant fine as a result of the FCC, but he is also facing criminal accusations. Kramer was charged with thirteen felony charges of voting suppression and thirteen misdemeanor counts of impersonating a candidate, according to an announcement made by the Attorney General of New Hampshire, John M. Formella, in early May of last year.