robocalls

The fines and charges come after New Hampshire voters got robocalls from an AI-generated version of President Biden's voice urging them not to vote in the upcoming presidential primary.

The federal agency's ruling follows concerns over how the cutting-edge technology is being used to scam people and mislead voters.

The New Hampshire attorney general is investigating recorded calls that appear to use a voice crafted to sound like President Biden to tell voters not to cast their ballot in the state's primary.

For the first time, court proceedings were streamed live to the public. The cases range from religious freedom to access to President Trump's personal financial records. Listen back here.

In the plan, service providers will provide technology to combat a practice known as spoofing to aid state attorneys general in locating and prosecuting the fraudulent robocallers.

The FCC wants phone companies to block robocalls by default. "We think these actions will help consumers ... to get the peace and the quiet that they deserve," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

A majority of consumers now ignore phone calls, assuming they're mostly spam. Regulators and the wireless industry admit they don't yet have answers about stopping the growing scourge.

"The American people are fed up with illegal robocalls," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said. "And we believe that we need to make it easier for phone companies to block these robocalls."

By some estimates, 26 billion robocalls were made to U.S. cellphones last year.

The Mandarin-language messages are part of a "parcel scam" that falsely accuses Chinese immigrants of money laundering and then extorts them.