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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7120 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>

118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7120

  To direct the Federal Trade Commission to revise the Telemarketing 
 Sales Rule to require disclosures for telemarketing using artificial 
   intelligence and to provide for enhanced penalties for violations 
involving artificial intelligence voice or text message impersonation, 
                        and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 29, 2024

Ms. Schakowsky introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
  To direct the Federal Trade Commission to revise the Telemarketing 
 Sales Rule to require disclosures for telemarketing using artificial 
   intelligence and to provide for enhanced penalties for violations 
involving artificial intelligence voice or text message impersonation, 
                        and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Restrictions on Utilizing Realistic 
Electronic Artificial Language Act'' or the ``R U REAL Act''.

SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE REQUIRED FOR TELEMARKETING USING AI.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Federal Trade Commission shall revise the 
Telemarketing Sales Rule (part 310 of title 16, Code of Federal 
Regulations) so as to add a requirement that, if a person makes a call 
or sends a text message with respect to telemarketing and uses 
artificial intelligence in such call or text message to emulate a human 
being, such person shall disclose at the beginning of such call or text 
message the fact that artificial intelligence is being used.
    (b) Definitions.--In this section, the terms ``telemarketing'' and 
``text message'' have the meanings given such terms in section 7 of the 
Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act (15 U.S.C. 
6106), as amended by this Act.

SEC. 3. ENHANCED PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS OF TELEMARKETING RULES 
              INVOLVING AI VOICE OR TEXT MESSAGE IMPERSONATION.

    (a) In General.--Section 6 of the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud 
and Abuse Prevention Act (15 U.S.C. 6105) is amended by adding at the 
end the following:
    ``(e) Enhanced Penalties for Violations Involving AI Voice or Text 
Message Impersonation.--
            ``(1) Penalties under federal trade commission act.--
        Notwithstanding subsection (b), in the case of a violation 
        described in paragraph (2), the maximum amount of the civil 
        penalty that may be imposed for such violation under subsection 
        (l) or (m) (as the case may be) of section 5 of the Federal 
        Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) shall be twice the maximum 
        amount that may be imposed for such violation under such 
        subsection without regard to this subsection.
            ``(2) Violations described.--The violations described in 
        this paragraph are the following:
                    ``(A) A violation of a rule prescribed by the 
                Commission under section 3 with respect to which the 
                party making the call or sending the text message uses 
                artificial intelligence to impersonate an individual or 
                entity with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or 
                wrongfully obtain anything of value.
                    ``(B) A violation of a cease-and-desist order 
                issued by the Commission under section 5(b) of the 
                Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45(b)) with 
                respect to a violation described in subparagraph 
                (A).''.
    (b) Applicability.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply with respect to violations occurring after the date of the 
enactment of this Act.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

    Section 7 of the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse 
Prevention Act (15 U.S.C. 6106) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (4), by inserting ``or text message'' 
        after ``telephone call''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(5) Text message.--
                    ``(A) In general.--The term `text message' means a 
                message consisting of text, images, sounds, or other 
                information that is transmitted to or from a device 
                that is identified as the receiving or transmitting 
                device by means of a 10-digit telephone number, N11 
                service code, short code telephone number, or email 
                address, or that is transmitted through application-to-
                person messaging, and includes--
                            ``(i) a short message service (commonly 
                        referred to as `SMS') message;
                            ``(ii) a multimedia message service 
                        (commonly referred to as `MMS') message; and
                            ``(iii) a rich communication service 
                        (commonly referred to as `RCS') message.
                    ``(B) Limitation.--The term `text message' does not 
                include a real-time, two-way voice or video 
                communication.''.
                                 <all>
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