During my State of the Union speech, I said we should ban AI voice impersonation. I was wrong.
Banning AI is a bunch of malarkey. It’s a knee-jerk reaction that would undermine Americans’ right to freedom of expression. Impersonation can be protected speech under the Constitution—for example, when people lawfully mimic celebrities or politicians for satirical or comedic purposes.
Voice cloning technology has many useful applications, such as producing podcasts, audiobooks, films, or video games.
The technology can even give someone their voice back if they suffer from throat cancer, a stroke, or ALS.
Some bad actors will abuse the technology. But fraud is fraud, and crimes like identity theft are illegal whether they use technology or not. So, government should stop harmful uses of AI by enforcing existing laws, not by slowing down innovation.
In the meantime, in case you haven’t figured this out yet, I’m not Joe Biden, and I did NOT approve this message.
