Steve Kramer explains why he used AI to impersonate President Biden in New Hampshire
NEW YORK -- A political consultant who represents several New York politicians admits he's the man behind the fake robocall telling President Joe Biden's supporters not to vote in New Hampshire.
On Monday, he explained why he did it.
When CBS New York's Marcia Kramer was in New Hampshire covering the primary, she had no idea that the mastermind of a campaign to get Democrats to boycott the primary was a man well known to the political cognoscenti in New York.
His name is Steve Kramer and, for the record, they are not related.
"They sent me a piece of mail, a subpoena, in order to be able to turn over some documents, which I fully intend to do," Steve Kramer said.
READ MORE: FCC declares AI-generated voices in robocalls are illegal
Steve Kramer, who is well known is Albany and City Hall political circles, owned up to the fact that he was subpoenaed by the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, as the man who orchestrated a stunning and contentious robocall that used artificial intelligence in a so-called "deepfake" move to suppress Democratic voter turnout in the New Hampshire primary.
"Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday," the call said.
The robocall did not stop New Hampshire Democrats from successfully writing in Biden's name, since he was not on the ballot. That's because the calls only went to a limited number of people, 5,000 voters. Steve Kramer said he was just trying to draw attention to the need of the FCC and state and local governments to set rules governing the use of AI in political campaigns. He said the $500 he spent on the Biden robocalls was money well spent.
"For me to do that and get $5 million worth of exposure -- not for me, I kept myself anonymous -- so that the regulations could just play themselves out or at least begin to play themselves out, I don't need to be famous. That not my intention. My intention was to make a difference," Steve Kramer said.
AI has been used by a number of politicians. Mayor Eric Adams used AI to generate calls in languages he doesn't speak, like Mandarin and Yiddish, to promote city hiring events.
A PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign used AI to deepfake Donald Trump's voice.
"I got sick of it. Since November's election, Marcia, I've got calls or texts or emails or things from different consultants, corporations, PACs, Super PAC. The only group that hasn't called me about doing something nasty is labor unions," Steve Kramer said.
Steve Kramer said he will gladly cooperate with the the federal probe or anyone else who wants to set regulations for AI.
Just days ago, New York City Councilmember Julie Menin introduced a bill that would criminalize the use of AI to sway a local election.