'What Is The FCC Doing?': Nick LaLota Asks FCC Chair About AI-Generated Scam Calls

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During a House Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) spoke about artificial intelligence-generated scam calls.

Transcript

00:00Thanks.

00:01Thank you, Mr. Alford.

00:03And I must admit, the chairman made me chuckle when he talked about rabbit ears.

00:06That brings me back as a kid standing in my backyard trying to catch the browns.

00:10Yeah, your dad yelling at you to try to move the rabbit ears around.

00:12Trying to catch the rabbit ears so he can catch the browns game from Erie, Pennsylvania.

00:16Yeah.

00:17Anyhow, the chair would like to recognize the vice chair of the committee, Mr. Lolota,

00:21for his five minutes of questions.

00:23Thank you, chairman.

00:23I appreciate the time.

00:24Chairman Carr, you're the head of the Federal Communications Commission.

00:28Yes, sir.

00:28And you've been at the FCC since about 2017?

00:31Commissioner, since 2017.

00:33I started as a staffer back in 2012.

00:35Did I read that you were nominated by presidents of both parties?

00:38It was by President Trump and President Biden.

00:40Great.

00:41And the FCC's jurisdiction covers wireless and wire communications,

00:46both including landlines and cellular phones?

00:48Yes, sir.

00:49And scam calls, fraudulent calls made with the intent to steal money, personal information,

00:56or both are under your purview, sir?

00:59That's right.

00:59We have a significant work stream going, including that we're always looking to expand that deals

01:04with robocalls, illegal robocalls, other types of spam.

01:07Other agencies, FTC as well, have a role here, but this is a big piece of what we do at the

01:11agency.

01:12I do want to talk about robocalls, but I first want to talk about AI-generated impersonation

01:17scams, which are becoming increasingly effective.

01:20My staff's research says that may those scams result in the loss of about $6,000 on average,

01:26where the traditional scam calls are about $539 on average.

01:30What types, Chairman, what types of AI scams are you seeing most commonly right now?

01:37So AI scams that come in two forms.

01:40One, AI as a technology can be used for actually generating these robocalls.

01:46Second, we're seeing AI used as the content on the robocall itself.

01:52The FCC at this point has made clear that the content of the robocall itself is not necessarily

01:58relevant to our determination, but the use of AI does constitute an artificial or pre-recorded

02:05voice, which is the regulation that allows us to regulate it as a robocall.

02:09Okay.

02:10What's the typical demographic targeted by these scam calls, and specifically the AI-generated

02:16calls?

02:16Do they skew older, younger, geographically?

02:20How would you describe the demographics of those who are targeted by these calls?

02:23I can look to get specifics on that.

02:25As a general matter, our sense is that the net is cast very, very widely.

02:28It may snag different people in different ways, but we can look more closely at some

02:34of that data.

02:35So my research, anecdotal and some more deeper, suggests that seniors are the ones being

02:41targeted more often.

02:42Do you agree with that instinct at least?

02:43Yeah, that would not surprise me at all.

02:45And what is the FCC doing about these AI-generated calls?

02:49Yeah, a couple things.

02:51One, we're always looking to strengthen our call blocking, our call authentication measures.

02:56We're working with the FTC.

02:58State attorney generals have also been involved, and we are issuing consumer advisories.

03:03When we see particular schemes that arise, we'll warn the relevant community about the

03:09contours of that scheme.

03:10Is the FCC equipped with the tools, the authorities it needs to properly combat this developing

03:16scam?

03:18Yeah, I'm comfortable right now in terms of where we are.

03:20I think we need to ramp our efforts up, but I don't think that's going to require significant

03:24new expenditures at this point.

03:26What can the committee and or Congress do to help you in this effort, Chairman?

03:30You know, we're right now doing a top-to-bottom review, and we'll come back to you if there's

03:33any gaps in our authorities that we need filled.

03:36Congress has been a great partner when there has been issues that arise, that we need additional

03:40authority providing that to us.

03:43One issue that we have always sort of looked at is on the enforcement side.

03:47The FTC doesn't have independent authority necessarily to go to court to block some of

03:51this, so let me take a look at that and see whether there's some fixes we might need there.

03:55Should you have that authority, in your opinion?

03:57Let me look and see how much of a block that's been, and then come back to you on that, and

04:02we'll get back to you on any broader reforms that we need as well.

04:04Okay, switching from the AI-generated calls to the robocalls, which are highly annoying

04:10to many of my constituents, how is the FCC working with telecom providers and law enforcement

04:15to stop robocallers at the source, especially those operating overseas?

04:20Yeah, one thing that we've done is we are continuing to grant carriers greater and greater

04:25leeway to block calls at the source, to block calls when they start.

04:29We're also putting a technology across the board called the stir-shake-in authentication

04:34framework to try to identify.

04:36We have a traceback consortium, so when we get a number, we now have the capacity to trace

04:41that number back to its origin.

04:43We've also been setting up a new process over these recent years where we are effectively

04:47forcing providers that are onboarding illegal robocalls to kick them off their network a lot

04:54faster, if they're not taking actions, then that provider itself, even though they're not

04:58a robocaller, they've enabled the robocalls, we're able to take action on them quickly as

05:02well.

05:02So we've just got to continue to ramp these efforts up.

05:04The FCC is inherently a domestic agency?

05:09Principally, but we do have, you know, a look at sort of international communications as well,

05:13and a lot of robocalls are coming from overseas, and there's been some challenges where we're upgrading

05:18our networks and our standards, but you can lose some of the identifying information when there's a

05:23handoff from abroad to the U.S., but we do work with our international counterparts on these issues.

05:29Generally speaking, Chairman, from where overseas are a lot of these scam calls coming?

05:33I think I'm from all over the place.

05:35India is one that originates a lot of these, but, you know, it can bounce around Eastern Europe as well.

05:40There's multiple sources of these calls.

05:42Thanks, Chairman.

05:43Hope we can stay in touch, and you let us know how this committee and Congress as a whole can help you

05:47with the tools, the authorities, the budget you need to help you do your job.

05:50Thank you so much.

05:50Thanks.

05:51I yield.

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