The FCC reminded companies this month that calls containing “artificial or prerecorded voices” are regulated by TCPA. And, that the FCC considers AI-generated voices to be just the kind of “artificial” that fall within the TCPA’s regulations. This announcement was made in a declaratory ruling issued by the FCC at the start of the month.

As a refresher, under TCPA, inter alia, companies must (unless certain exceptions apply):

• Have prior express consent to make calls to residential and cell phones that include an artificial voice.
• Have prior express written consent to make marketing calls to residential and cell phones that include an artificial voice.

Exceptions to these requirements include if the call is an emergency call, among other things.

Putting It Into Practice: While it received a fair amount of publicity, this ruling should not come as a surprise. Voices created by artificial intelligence are as the term implies “artificial,” and thus it makes sense that the FCC will include consider them as such under the TCPA.