As midterm elections near, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is pressing the Federal Communications Commission to deny a request from a conservative advocacy group to use artificial intelligence to make political calls.
In a letter sent to the FCC on Monday, the New York Democrat warned that those calls could be misleading and could create situations where endorsements are fabricated, voting instructions are inaccurate, and candidates are impersonated.
"There’s no excuse for flooding Americans’ phones with shady, dark-money-funded AI robocalls," he said. "Not this fall. Not ever."
This comes after conservative group Club for Growth sent its request to the FCC in August, asking the agency to give it a "clear path to compliance" for being able to call people using AI or a prerecorded voice. The group asked for the decision to be expedited given the Nov. 3 elections and said current rules pose problems for the First Amendment.
However, Schumer said those calls could have "major, misleading implications on elections."
"Groups with nefarious motivations could claim their opponent has admitted to an unpopular position or that a voter’s polling time or location has changed," Schumer said. "This is simply another attempt to mislead American voters and avoid a clear referendum on Trump and Republicans’ policies that have caused skyrocketing costs, unchecked chaos, and rampant corruption."
AI has repeatedly come up as a concern in the upcoming elections. Last week, a bill was reintroduced to require disclaimers for when generative AI is used in political ads. The New York Times has reported that over $136 million has been spent on AI-generated ads, with Republicans using it more often than Democrats.