Robocall Items Headline Consumer-Focused August FCC Meeting

FCC commissioners will vote at their Aug. 7 open meeting on an NPRM that delves more deeply into consumer protections against AI-generated robocalls, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Tuesday. In addition, commissioners will vote on an emergency alert system code for missing and endangered persons and procedural updates to the robocall database. Commissioners will also vote on an adjudicatory matter from the Media Bureau and an Enforcement Bureau item.

“If there’s one thing more intolerable than the historic heat wave that’s been punishing large swaths of the country, it’s unwanted robocalls,” Rosenworcel said in notes from the FCC. The agency will post drafts Wednesday.

In November, commissioners approved 5-0 an open-ended notice of inquiry asking how AI can fight robocalls, as well as about the technology's potential risks (see 2311150042). That NOI led to a declaratory ruling in February prohibiting voice-cloning technology in robocall scams (see 2402080052). CTIA and USTelecom urged that the FCC allow flexibility in how providers use AI (see 2312200039).

“Bad actors are already using AI technology in robocalls to mislead consumers and misinform the public,” Rosenworcel said in a news release: “That’s why we want to put in place rules that empower consumers to avoid this junk and make informed decisions.”

The NPRM proposes requiring callers to make clear they plan using AI-generated calls as part of obtaining prior consent from consumers and to make clear when a call uses AI, the release said. It notes the large number of actions the FCC is taking that address AI-powered robocalls, including financial penalties.

Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler blogged Tuesday that AI is in many ways the biggest innovation since the introduction of Johannes Gutenberg’s movable-type printing press. “We can be certain that what we have seen in recent months is the slowest pace of AI-driven change we will ever see.”

“Dictating the behavior of thousands of individual AI models may be an impossible expectation, but that does not preclude assessing AI activity through risk-based oversight enabled by transparency and audits,” Wheeler wrote: “The difficulty inherent in regulating the technology itself means the most logical approach to getting control of the AI revolution is to focus on its effects.”

The FCC, Rosenworcel noted, is "strengthening a key tool for combating robocalls" by considering "procedural updates to improve the effectiveness of" the FCC’s ability to hold providers accountable for compliance with robocall mitigation rules.

The agency will also vote on the creation of an emergency alert system code for missing and endangered adults called the MEP code. The item stems from an NPRM approved in March (see 2403080049). MEP alert would be used for missing people older than 17 with special needs and circumstances or who are endangered, abducted or kidnapped. The code is intended to fill the gap between Amber Alerts used for missing children and Silver Alerts for missing seniors. In addition, it addresses the rising issue of disappearances among Native Americans.

The FCC “will vote to change our Emergency Alert System to make it easier to use TV and radio to sound the alarm about missing and endangered persons, an issue that is particularly acute in Tribal communities where thousands of native and indigenous women have disappeared,” Rosenworcel said in a release. The item has the backing of the National Congress of American Indians and other Native groups, and is in line with a DOJ effort to create a national network for responses to missing and endangered adults. Commissioners unanimously approved the MEP NPRM, which was widely supported in nearly all the comments filed at the FCC.