The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office announced a criminal investigation into a Texas-based telecommunications company that is allegedly behind the thousands of robocalls sent to Democrats impersonating President Joe Biden and telling them not to vote in the state’s primary.
Republican Attorney General John Formella said in a news conference on Tuesday that the office sent a cease-and-desist letter to Life Corp. ordering them to stop violating New Hampshire laws that protect against voter suppression in elections.
Between 5,000 and 20,000 people received phone calls with a Biden impersonation generated by artificial intelligence that told them not to vote in the state’s primary, according to the Washington Post. It is unclear how many people did not vote because of these robocalls, Formella said.
In the robocall, the manipulation of Biden’s voice began with “what a bunch of malarkey,” a favorite phrase of the president. The voice then said, “It’s important that you save your vote for the November election.”
“Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again. Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday,” the message said.
Formella did not provide information as to which company’s software was used to create the robocalls. However, AI startup ElevenLabs announced shortly after the robocalls surfaced that it had suspended an account that created the Biden deepfake, per Bloomberg.
The attorney general said a multistate task force is also looking into possible civil litigation against the company. The Federal Communications Commission ordered Lingo Telecom to stop permitting robocall traffic after Life Corp. was discovered to be the originating source of the calls.
Formella said the actions taken by his office will serve as a reminder to malign actors of what will happen if they try to use AI to interfere in elections.
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“Don’t try it,” he said on Tuesday. “If you do, we will work together to investigate, we will work together with partners across the country to find you, and we will take any enforcement action available to us under the law. The consequences for your actions will be severe.”
Despite the robocalls, Biden won the New Hampshire primary thanks to a write-in effort spearheaded by Democrats in the Granite State. Biden could not campaign in the state due to Democratic National Committee rules regarding the 2024 presidential nominating calendar that removed New Hampshire from its first-in-the-nation slot for the first time in a century.