AI-generated voices can be good, or they can be bad—as Witcher voice actor Doug Cockle said, it really all comes down to the intent of the user. How to effectively address the potential for misuse is a big question, but the US Federal Communications Commission has now taken a step to crack down on at least one avenue of misuse by outlawing AI-generated voices in robocalls.
Robocalls are automated phone calls that play a pre-recorded message, commonly used for telemarketing or political campaigns. They're an aggravation at the best of times, but the rise of AI makes them especially dangerous because instead of a random voice, a person might hear Clint Eastwood, Gregory Peck, or US president Joe Biden. That last one actually happened in January, when a fake-Biden-voiced robocall went out to more than 20,000 people, urging Democrats not to vote.
