FTC

• In a complaint first announced in May 2023, the FTC says that Ring deceived its customers by failing to restrict employees’ and contractors’ access to its customers’ videos, using its customer videos to train algorithms without consent, and failing to implement security safeguards.
• The Commission’s interactive dashboards for refund data provide a state-by-state breakdown of refunds in FTC cases.
• In 2023, FTC actions led to $324 million in refunds to consumers across the country.
• Follow the FTC on social media, read consumer alerts and the business blog, and sign up to get the latest FTC news and alerts.

• The Federal Trade Commission has issued an order approving modifications that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has proposed to its Registration Rule.
• The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act requires the Authority to submit proposed rules (or rule modifications) to the FTC for approval.
• On June 29, 2022, the FTC issued an order approving the Authority’s initial Registration Rule after a public comment period.
• In February 2024, the FTC sought public comment on the Authority’s proposed modifications to the Registration Rule.

• The Federal Trade Commission has issued an order approving modifications that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has proposed to its Registration Rule.
• The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act requires the Authority to submit proposed rules (or rule modifications) to the FTC for approval.
• On June 29, 2022, the FTC issued an order approving the Authority’s initial Registration Rule after a public comment period.
• In February 2024, the FTC sought public comment on the Authority’s proposed modifications to the Registration Rule.

Approaches to Address AI-enabled Voice Cloning

• Today, the FTC announced four winners of the Voice Cloning Challenge, which was launched to address the present and emerging harms of artificial intelligence, or “AI”-enabled voice cloning technologies.
• The FTC received submissions from a wide range of individuals, teams, and organizations.

Leveraging solutions to provide upstream prevention or authentication

• Prevention or authentication refers to techniques that limit the application and misuse of voice cloning software by unauthorized users.
• One commonly discussed approach for prevention and authentication is watermarking, which often refers to a “broad array of techniques” for embedding an identifying mark into a piece of media to track its origin to help prevent the misuse of cloned audio clips.
• [2] Invisible or visible watermarks can be altered or removed, potentially rendering them unhelpful for differentiating between real and synthetic content.

Applying solutions to detect solutions in real-time

Real-time detection or monitoring includes methods to detect cloned voices or the use of voice cloning technology at the time during which a specific event occurs. Studies reveal a spectrum of efficacy for voice cloning detection solutions.[5] The effectiveness of such solutions is especially important when considering the types of AI-enabled voice cloning scams – such as fraudulent extortion scams – that the technology can enable.

Using solutions to evaluate existing content

• The post-use evaluation of existing content includes methods to check if already-created audio clips such as voice mail messages and audio direct messages contain cloned voices.
• One potential way to evaluate existing audio clips is to develop algorithms that detect inconsistencies in voice cloned clips.

Looking forward: Preventing and deterring AI-enabled voice cloning scams and fraud

• While there are many exciting ideas with great potential, there’s still no silver bullet to prevent the harms posed by voice cloning.
• Further, voice service providers – telephone and VoIP companies – need to continue making progress against illegal calls.
• In addition, the Commission has recently enacted a new Impersonation Rule, which will give the agency additional tools to deter and halt deceptive voice cloning practices.
• There is no AI exemption from the laws on the books and the FTC remains committed to protecting consumers from the misuse of “AI”-enabled voice cloning technologies.

[2]https://arxiv.org/pdf/2306.01953.pdf
[3]https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/08/09/1077516/watermarking-ai-trus...
[4]https://www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/voice_cloning_financial_sca...
[5]https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.07683.pdf; https://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.13770.pdf
[6]https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.14970.pdf
[7]https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.18085v1.pdf
[8] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.07683.pdf; https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.18085v1.pdf