Steve Kramer warns AI-generated impersonation is already present
Steve Kramer of Get Out the Vote says he sent an automated call mimicking the president's voice three years ago as a warning shot, argues the harms now seen were preventable, and urges the Council to think ahead because AI is already being governed by companies and bad actors may not be human.
Thank you so much.
Good afternoon or morning still.
I'm Steve Kramer.
I own the firm Get Out the Vote.
I handle 59 members of Congress.
I handle eight governors, including our current governor.
Three years ago, I sent out an automated call that mimicked the voice of the president.
It was a warning shot to the entire industry as well as to America about what's coming, about what was in the future at the time.
Little did I know that it wasn't the future I was predicting, it was the present at the time of things that were already going on in the mainstream all over the place, whether it be
against individuals and sexualizing them, whether it be against politicians, including our mayor and other people here in Manhattan that were affected.
But I'm going to ask you all to think to the future now, because what we're seeing right now happened three years ago.
What we're seeing right now was preventable, is preventable.
But what we're seeing right now isn't AI.
AI is...
Many years ahead of us right now.
And the fact that it's being governed by
companies that aren't really governing it and by itself, meaning the artificial intelligence, means that the bad actors that I was accused of being aren't even human.
And the safeguards that you put in here, not just today, but in the present,
have to predict the future, and that's a very difficult job for anybody.
I sympathize with both what's going on in the hearing today as well as the former hearing.
I hope that you think ahead when making your next steps.
Thank you.