Steven Kramer, a political consultant, has been charged with a crime and punished for allegedly utilizing artificial intelligence to send thousands of voters in New Hampshire robocalls advising them not to cast ballots in this year’s presidential primary. The robocalls purportedly resembled the voice of President Joe Biden.
Kramer acknowledged that he had placed the calls in January, a few days before the New Hampshire presidential primary began.
Kramer claims that the communications were intended to highlight the potential dangers and strengths of artificial intelligence (AI), but state laws pertaining to voter discouragement are allegedly broken.
The message informed the listener that voting in the presidential primary would prevent them from casting a ballot in the general election this November after a convincing impersonation of Biden uttering the notoriously famous words, “What a bunch of malarkey!”
Almost half of the more than two dozen allegations against Kramer are related to felonies involving voter suppression. The remaining accusations are misdemeanors, which include pretending to be a political candidate and making fraudulent statements.
A group of New Hampshire voters filed a civil lawsuit against Kramer for making the deepfake robocalls, claiming that he employed businesses such as Life Corporation and Lingo Telecom LLC to carry out the scam.
One voter claimed that the phony Biden voice sounded so authentic in that instance that she failed to “consider at the time that it wasn’t his real voice.”
She remarked, “That’s how convincing it was.”
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Kramer was also to be fined $6 million by the Federal Communications Commission for his “spoofing” method, which is against the Truth in Caller in ID Act.
The FCC claims that Lingo Telecom ought to pay $2 million in fines for sending the robocalls.
“I hope that our respective enforcement actions send a strong deterrent signal to anyone who might consider interfering with elections, whether through the use of artificial intelligence or otherwise,” Formella stated on Thursday.
Belknap, Merrimack, Grafton, and Rockingham Counties have all received charges. In June, Kramer will be arraigned in each of the four locations.
Kramer acknowledged that he had made the calls earlier in the year. To create them, he used Paul Carpenter, a “transient magician” who also served as a marketing consultant. In a February interview, Carpenter said to NBC that he was unaware Kramer would utilize his works for “malicious intent.”
“I created the audio used in the robocall. I did not distribute it,” Carpenter Stated. “I was in a situation where someone offered me some money to do something, and I did it. There was no malicious intent. I didn’t know how it was going to be distributed.”
