{"id":404939,"date":"2025-11-26T02:15:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/404939\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T02:15:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:15:23","slug":"political-consultant-defies-federal-court-order-over-ai-robocalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/404939\/","title":{"rendered":"Political consultant defies federal court order over AI robocalls"},"content":{"rendered":"

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) \u2014 A political consultant who sent artificial intelligence-generated robocalls<\/a> mimicking former President Joe Biden to New Hampshire Democrats said Tuesday he will not pay $22,500 to three voters despite a recent federal court order.<\/p>\n

The order, issued Friday in a lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters<\/a>, came five months after a jury acquitted Steve Kramer<\/a> of voter suppression and impersonating a candidate. In the civil case, the judge entered a default judgement after Kramer failed to appear in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never responded to them because I was already acquitted on 22 counts,\u201d Kramer said in an email, insisting that the lawsuit was a publicity stunt that wasted the court\u2019s time. He also has refused to pay a $6 million fine<\/a> issued by the Federal Communications Commission.<\/p>\n

Though jurors sided with Kramer in the criminal trial, the judge in the civil case not only ordered him to pay $7,500 to each voter who sued but banned him from engaging in the same conduct nationwide. Caren Short, director of legal and research at the League of Women Voters, described the decision as a \u201ccritical precedent against the weaponization of artificial intelligence in elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs will explore further action if Kramer doesn\u2019t pay up, said Courtney Hostetler of Free Speech for People, which provided the League with legal assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Kramer has shown a consistent disregard for the law and the rights of voters,\u201d she said. \u201cHis plan to defy the court\u2019s order continues this pattern, and reinforces the importance of the injunction and the damages award.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kramer, 56, of New Orleans, admitted orchestrating a message sent to thousands of voters two days before the state\u2019s Jan. 23, 2024, presidential primary<\/a>. Recipients heard an AI-generated voice similar to Biden\u2019s that suggested that voting in the primary would preclude voters from casting ballots in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that you save your vote for the November election,\u201d voters were told. \u201cYour votes make a difference in November, not this Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kramer, who would have faced decades in prison if convicted, testified that he wanted to send a wake-up call<\/a> about the potential dangers of AI when he paid a New Orleans magician<\/a> $150 to create the recording. He said he was getting frequent calls from people using AI in campaigns, and, worried about the lack of regulations, made it his New Year\u2019s resolution to take action.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be my one good deed this year,\u201d he recalled while testifying in Belknap County Superior Court in June.<\/a><\/p>\n

Kramer argued that the primary was a meaningless straw poll, and therefore the state\u2019s voter suppression law didn\u2019t apply. The primary was held in defiance of the Democratic National Committee, which had dislodged New Hampshire<\/a> from its traditional spot in the nominating calendar, though the state\u2019s delegates were still seated at the national convention. Biden did not put his name on the ballot or campaign there but won as a write-in.<\/p>\n

Lingo Telecom, the company that transmitted the calls, agreed to pay $1 million in a settlement with the FCC in August 2024. The agency, which did not respond to requests for comment, was developing AI-related rules when Donald Trump won the presidency, but it has since shown signs of a shift toward loosening regulations. <\/p>\n

And though multiple states have enacted legislation targeting the use of video or audio content that mimics candidates in political campaigns, Trump is considering pressuring states to stop regulating<\/a> artificial intelligence. Trump and some Republicans argue that such regulation will dampen innovation, while critics worry about allowing big AI companies to operate with little oversight.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, attorneys general in 36 states, including New Hampshire, sent a letter to Congress opposing the preemption of state laws addressing the risks of AI. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CONCORD, N.H. (AP) \u2014 A political consultant who sent artificial intelligence-generated robocalls mimicking former President Joe Biden to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":404940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[45816,691,738,191195,191196,356,69,90,18320,57,4228,82,12588,336,167223,362,181121,991,2112,80,191194,158,61,67,132,68,333],"class_list":{"0":"post-404939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-2024-united-states-presidential-election","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-caren-short","12":"tag-courtney-hostetler","13":"tag-courts","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-elections","16":"tag-federal-communications-commission","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-indictments","19":"tag-joe-biden","20":"tag-juries","21":"tag-lawsuits","22":"tag-league-of-women-voters","23":"tag-legal-proceedings","24":"tag-local-news-for-apple","25":"tag-new-hampshire","26":"tag-nh-state-wire","27":"tag-politics","28":"tag-steve-kramer","29":"tag-technology","30":"tag-u-s-news","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-unitedstates","33":"tag-us","34":"tag-voting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115613593357256689","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}