Man charged as mastermind of New Hampshire Biden-voice robocalls

State prosecutors filed more than two dozen charges against 54-year-old Steven Kramer, Attorney General John M. Formella said Thursday. The charges stem from automated calls that went out in January, days before a primary election. Kramer faces 13 felony charges of voter suppression and 13 more misdemeanor charges of impersonating a candidate. Formella’s office stressed that Kramer should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, as the charges are merely allegations, not proof of wrongdoing.

What did Kramer allegedly do? Voters across New Hampshire received phone calls purporting to be from President Joe Biden telling them not to vote in the state’s Jan. 23 Democratic Presidential Primary. The president’s voice advised listeners to save their votes for November, according to a statement by the New Hampshire Justice Department. However, the voice on the calls was not Biden’s actual voice but a version generated with artificial intelligence.

Is the federal government doing anything about this? The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday proposed fining Kramer $6 million and Lingo Telecom, which transmitted the calls, and $2 million for failing to label them as inauthentic. The FCC has outlawed cold calls using AI-generated voices.

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Muncy’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about the increasing sophistication and prevalence of AI-generated deepfakes.