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Get AI out of my robocalls
Ahead of the New Hampshire presidential primary, many voters got a suspicious robocall from Joe Biden urging them not to vote. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was an AI-generated version of his voice custom made to confuse voters.
Now, the Federal Communications Commission wants to make AI-generated voice-cloning calls illegal under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
“AI-generated voice cloning and images are already sowing confusion by tricking consumers into thinking scams and frauds are legitimate,” FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote in a statement. “We could all be a target of these faked calls,” she warned.
While AI has been used to make images and videos used in political advertising this election cycle, deepfake voices — especially over telephone — are arguably tougher to detect. Everyone sounds a little weird over the phone, right?
The FCC, wanting to act promptly amid primaries and before this November’s election, is set to vote on the proposed rule change in the coming weeks.
We'll never fix America's internet without measuring access properly, says FCC chair
Jessica Rosenworcel, acting chair of the US Federal Communications Commission, says mapping the real state of America's broadband access is flawed because a single subscriber in a rural area doesn't mean everyone is online. "You don't have to be a data maven to understand that that likely overstates service," she notes, and underscores the need to develop more accurate systems. "We're never going to manage the problems we don't measure."
Rosenworcel weighed in during a Global Stage livestream conversation hosted by GZERO Media in partnership with Microsoft during the 76th UN General Assembly.
Learn more: Should internet be free for everyone? A Global Stage debate
Cuba internet censorship amid protests; pressure grows against Huawei
Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director at Stanford's Cyber Policy Center, Eurasia Group senior advisor and former MEP, discusses trends in big tech, privacy protection and cyberspace:
Cuba has curbed access to messaging apps amid protests. How controlled and censored is Cuba's internet?
Well, any debate and criticism is tightly controlled in Cuba, including through information, monitoring and monopoly. But activists such as blogger Yoani Sánchez have always been brave in defying repression and making sure that messages of Cubans reached others online across the world. Now mobile internet has become accessible to Cubans since about two years, but accessing it remains incredibly expensive. But the fact that the regime in Cuba once again seeks to censor people through shutting down internet services actually shows it is its Achilles' heel. As Yoani has said, the Castros have lost the internet.
On a different note, the FCC is finalizing a program to replace Huawei equipment in the United States. Will Europe soon make a similar move?
Well, I wouldn't wait for it, although pressure is growing against Huawei in Europe too. Sweden has taken a tough line along with Eastern European countries, while a country like Spain has sought a much more gradual approach. And one of the main challenges for Europeans is to ensure a united position at the intersection of its single market and 27 nationally decided national security thresholds. It is a question also impacting universities as they continue to accept research grants from companies like Huawei.
FCC wants to change Section 230 regulating tech companies & censorship
Nicholas Thompson, editor-in-chief of WIRED, shares his perspective on technology news in Tech In (a little over) 60 Seconds:
What is the deal with Twitter and Facebook censoring a New York Post story on Hunter Biden?
The New York Post ran a story on Hunter Biden. It may have been entirely false. It may have been hacked. Both of those things are problems. But the complicated thing is when the story ran, nobody at Facebook and nobody at Twitter knew whether it was false or whether it had been hacked. The two companies responded in different ways. Facebook said, we're just going to down-rank it. Twitter initially said, "we just won't let it be shared." Twitter then backtracked. Basically, there is a really hard problem of what you do with false information and what you do with hacked information. Neither company has totally clear policies and both got caught in the slipstream.
Was the censoring of the New York Post story the catalyst for the FCC's public statements to rewrite Section 230?
Yes, absolutely. So Section 230 is the very important Internet law that allows the tech companies to filter content on their platforms. It essentially says, hey, if you run a platform, whether it's Facebook, Twitter or a Web site comments, you are not responsible for comments and for content that other people post there. And not only that, you have the ability to within certain limits, censor, change, edit the content out there without becoming a publisher and becoming liable. So that is partly what has allowed the tech companies to do what they do. It's allowed them to thrive and it's also allowed them to have policies policing misinformation or false statements on their platforms. So, Donald Trump got very mad at it, and so Ajit Pai, the head of the FCC, said, "hey, we're going to look at Section 230 and interpret it." In my opinion, that's garbage. Section 230 may be a bad law. It may be bad that the tech companies filter content on their platforms, whatever. I don't see how the FCC has the authority to deal with that. It is a law that gets interpreted by the courts. So, Congress can change the law, or the courts can change the interpretation of the law. I don't see why the FCC has authority, but who knows? It's just my guess, Ajit Pai is trying to please Donald Trump.
Tech in 60 Seconds: CES, Location Data, and Techlash
There were so many awesome things at CES this year, which was the coolest?
It's Tech in 60 Seconds with Nicholas Thompson!
And go deeper on topics like cybersecurity and artificial intelligence at Microsoft Today in Technology.