Hello,
Overall, President Biden delivered a strong SOTU, and because “presidents make politics,” what presidents call for, in public, shape for what is possible to discuss in politics, and therefore, make policy victories possible. As a great summary of what Biden called for in his 2023 SOTU shows, legislative power lies with Congress. And, more importantly, veto powers lie in commitees and sometimes just one powerful senator or representative have enough veto power that good ideas get blocked, on and on. But Biden’s support for lowering monthly credit card fees, and his continued fight to cap monthly insulin payments for all Americans (GOP blocked this last year), and not just those with Medicare, is a welcome fight. His commitment to supporting federal legislaton for women’s reproductive rights is great to hear; and his exhultation to Republicans, asking them in front of the American public, “My God, what freedoms will you take away next?” was powerful.
I hope Americans watch or read the text over the next little while, because Biden truly has been the best president of my lifetime, and it’s not really even close.
But, I am writing this newsletter edition just to highlight and express support for the president’s call to ban AI-voice impersonations.
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Six months ago, I started noticing that certain ads would play that have a familiar voice, but I could recognize that that voice wasn’t really them. For example, one ad for I don’t know what because ads are meaningless to me, used Trump’s voice, just pitch shifted or altered a bit. I had one that voice cloned Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan at one point, too. I thought, “yeah..this is a problem.” The reason that companies use ads that have a voice that are kind of in the uncanny valley territory, but are close enough, is because they realize that their viewers trust certain voices, and they want to subconsciosly give you ads that you registers subconsciously as trustworthy. It’s perverse and, of course, wrong. These audio deepfakes need to be addressed.
Last night President Biden called for a “ban [on] AI voice impersonations.” He is right to do so. There is precedent, by the way. In February, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), through it’s authority bestowed on it by Congress in the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act, put restrictions on the use of AI-generated robocalls. Headlines say the FCC made this illegal while also giving state attorneys general more power to go after companies that do so. This is a good rule, and a good use of authority. But, the details are more like, companies will have to acquire consent from customers, first; so this isn’t exactly a ban, but a good start. Hopefully.
I support the call for a national ban on “audio fakes” and “voice cloning.” As a recent interview with Hany Farid, a computer science professor from UC-Berkeley attested, all you need is a few minutes of someone’s voice (the amount needed will exponentially shrink over time, in the very near future), and you can use generative AI to have that voice say whatever you want. “There is no barrier to entry or technical skill involved,” they remarked.
We must get ahead of this technology. We won’t. But we should. And President Biden would sign bills that did so. The ball is in the hands of Congress to regulate A.I. and technology companies better.
Thanks,
Patrick M. Foran