Scam callers are using AI to replicate voices, Senator Klobuchar calls on FTC and FCC to act

Senator Klobuchar calls on FTC and FCC to address AI voice imitation scams

Senator Klobuchar calls on FTC and FCC to address AI voice imitation scams

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is warning that scammers are using artificial intelligence to imitate the voices of real people.

After a voice is copied, messages are then sent to loved ones or friends of the person being mimicked, oftentimes pretending the person whose voice was copied is in danger.

“It literally takes three seconds — three seconds — for someone to scrape your voice off the internet, then that voice is used for criminal operation,” Senator Amy Klobuchar said.

Tim Nelson, a Minnesotan with a son in the U.S. Marine Corps, got a panicked call from who he thought was his son, but he could tell something was off.

“My first temptation was to call back immediately, there was so little information and so little I got — and it was so alarming to hear his voice in such distress that I thought I have to respond,” Nelson said. “But I took a minute and I said — ‘There’s something not quite right here.'”

Klobuchar has helped introduce legislation to combat AI voice cloning technology and is calling on both the FTC and FCC to do more about these scams.