AI-cloned Biden voice robocalls hit New Hampshire primary voters

What happened

On January 21, 2024, two days before New Hampshire's presidential primary, thousands of potential voters received robocalls — automated telephone calls that play a recorded message — carrying a voice that imitated President Joe Biden but had been generated with artificial intelligence^[1][3]. The message told listeners to keep their vote for the November election and not to take part in the primary on January 23^[3].

The calls also carried misleading caller ID information. The number that appeared on recipients' phones belonged to a prominent New Hampshire political operative who had neither knowledge of nor consent to its use^[3]. Caller ID spoofing of this kind makes a mass automated call look as if it comes from a real local number, which raises the chance that people answer it and take it seriously.

Who was behind the calls

Political consultant Steve Kramer directed the calls, which were transmitted through Lingo Telecom^[1]. Kramer said he paid a magician in New Orleans $150 to make the recording, and said he wanted to send a wake-up call about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence^[2]. Voice cloning tools make that kind of imitation cheap: a sample of a person speaking is enough to produce new sentences in the same voice, so a well-known public figure can be made to say things he never said.

The regulator's response

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved on two tracks. On May 23, 2024, it adopted a Notice of Apparent Liability proposing a $6 million penalty against Kramer under the Truth in Caller ID Act^[3]. On September 26, 2024, the commission adopted the $6 million forfeiture order itself — its first fine involving generative AI technology^[1]. The legal hook was the spoofed caller ID rather than the synthetic voice.

The company that carried the calls settled separately. Lingo Telecom agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty and to implement a first-of-its-kind compliance plan requiring STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication^[1]. STIR/SHAKEN is a set of standards that lets networks check that the number shown on a call really belongs to the party making it; without such checks, a spoofed number is hard for the person receiving the call to question.

Criminal charges and acquittal

Kramer was also indicted in New Hampshire, on 13 felony charges of voter suppression and 13 misdemeanor charges of impersonating a candidate^[2]. On June 13, 2025, he was acquitted on all counts of voter suppression and impersonating a candidate in New Hampshire state court; the FCC civil penalty still stands^[4].

Why it matters

Shortly after the primary, the FCC outlawed robocalls that contain voices generated by artificial intelligence^[2]. The episode also set out the arithmetic of the problem in unusually plain terms: $150 to make the recording^[2], against a $6 million forfeiture and a $1 million settlement^[1]. And it showed the two routes diverging — the administrative penalty stood while the criminal case ended in acquittal^[4].