A group wants the FCC to allow AI robocalls to your cellphone without consent

According to WBRC, a political group called the Club for Growth has asked the Federal Communications Commission for an emergency waiver that would let it make AI-generated robocalls to cellphones without the recipient's consent.

Right now, the law requires that consent. That single requirement is the thing standing between a phone that rings occasionally and a phone that rings constantly, and the petition asks to remove it.

What the petition actually asks for

The Club for Growth wants to use AI-powered calling tools to reach potential voters ahead of the midterm elections. Its petition describes this as noncommercial political speech, meant to inform and gather input more efficiently, including in more languages. It points out that similar rules already apply to landlines, and argues cellphones should work the same way.

Patrick Crotty, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, called it one of the worst ideas he has seen in the space. He said if the consent requirement is waived, political robocalls could increase by as much as 40 times compared with past midterm elections. His estimate: something closer to 15 billion robocalls.

Where the scam risk sits

This petition is not itself a scam. But the mechanism it would unlock is the same one scammers already rely on: a machine that can dial at a scale no human caller ever could, using a synthetic voice that sounds like a real person. Right now, consent is the barrier that keeps that scale in check for cellphones. Remove the barrier for one category of caller, political campaigns, and the technology, the infrastructure and the AI voice tools used to clear that bar get normalized for everyone else trying to reach the same lines.

The tell, if the waiver is granted, will not be obvious at first. AI-generated voices are built to sound natural, not robotic. A caller claiming to represent a campaign, asking questions, gathering input, will be indistinguishable by ear from a scripted scam call using the same technology for a different purpose.

The Club for Growth did not immediately respond to a request for an interview. The FCC is currently taking public comments on the petition, which means the decision is not yet made.

Submit a comment to the FCC while the petition is open, if fewer unwanted calls on a cellphone matters.