(Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
The man allegedly behind the Biden AI deepfake robocalls that circulated before the New Hampshire primary earlier this year has been identified, charged with over a dozen felonies and misdemeanors, and is now facing a proposed $6 million FCC fine.
The agency says Steve Kramer, who was connected to Democratic US Rep. Dean Phillips' presidential campaign, violated the Truth in Caller ID Act because the caller ID falsely appeared to be from a "prominent local political consultant"—Kathy Sullivan, a former Democratic Party chair in the state. The FCC has also repeatedly said that AI-generated deepfake robocalls are illegal under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
The calls used AI to mimic President Biden's voice and encouraged people not to vote. "Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday," the fake Biden voice said.
The FCC says Kramer used a company called Voice Broadcasting Corp, which used Life Corp to transmit the phone calls. The robocalls were ultimately sent using Lingo Telecom, which mislabeled the calls. The FCC previously sent Lingo a cease-and-desist order in February.
The New Hampshire Department of Justice is charging Kramer with 13 felony counts of voter suppression and 13 misdemeanor counts of impersonating a political candidate.
"I hope that our respective enforcement actions send a strong deterrent signal to anyone who might consider interfering with elections, whether through the use of artificial intelligence or otherwise," says New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella.
Kramer previously admitted to NBC News that he's behind the fake Biden robocalls and reportedly hired Paul Carpenter, a magician from New Orleans, for roughly $150 to create the Biden deepfake. Carpenter said it cost him a dollar and 20 minutes of his time to generate the deepfake voice but claims he didn't know it would be used for a deepfake robocall.
"I created the audio used in the robocall. I did not distribute it," Carpenter previously told NBC. "I was in a situation where someone offered me some money to do something, and I did it. There was no malicious intent."
Carpenter says he regrets his involvement, but Kramer has no such concerns. "I’m not afraid to testify, I know why I did everything," Kramer told NBC, adding: "If a House oversight committee wants me to testify, I’m going to demand they put it on TV because I know more than them."
Phillips' campaign had paid Kramer about $250,000 by the time the robocalls went live, according to campaign documents. Kramer said he only spent about $500 to get the Biden deepfake calls going and implied it was worth it because he got "about $5 million worth of action, whether that be media attention or regulatory action" in return.
"Our campaign repeats its condemnation of these calls and any efforts to suppress the vote," a rep for Phillips' campaign previously said.
Kramer has worked on numerous political campaigns over the past two decades at the local, state, and federal levels.
In the wake of the robocalls, President Biden called out AI voice impersonation during his State of the Union address as a threat that needs to be stopped. “Harness the promise of AI and protect us from peril. Ban AI voice impersonations and more,” he said.