Senators Urge Consumer Bureau to Take Action on Voice Cloning Technology

Lawmakers say AI can threaten consumer financial safety

A group of U.S. Senators is urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to take steps to protect consumers from the risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI). Specifically, the lawmakers are calling out voice cloning technology which they say can put private banking information at risk.

U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Tina Smith (D-MN) sent a letter to CFPB director Rohit Chopra outlining their concerns.

“Voice cloning adds a new, threatening dimension to these (bank access) scams, allowing fraudsters to generate voice clips to convincingly impersonate friends, family, or potentially even financial advisors and bank employees. Hearing trusted voices amplifies the risks of consumers falling victim to scams,” the lawmakers wrote. “The risks posed by voice cloning in the realm of financial scams demand immediate attention and action. To effectively address this emerging threat, we respectfully request that the CFPB review the risks posed by this new technology as soon as practicable and take action under the CFPB’s existing authorities to protect consumers.”

Senator Brown, who chairs the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, has previously raised similar concerns with bank leaders. Specifically, Brown asked the CEOs of six of the largest banks in the nation to take action to protect consumers during a hearing on the issue in May.

In a letter to those bank leaders, Brown detailed his concerns:

“Despite these breaches, financial institutions continue to market voice authentication as safe and reliable without identifying the risks customers should consider before opting into this service,” Brown wrote. “We seek to better understand what measures financial institutions are taking to ensure the security of the voice authentication tools and the steps they are taking to ensure strong data privacy for voice data. Consumers deserve to understand how their voice data is being collected, stored, used, and retained.”

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