Greetings from Terminal S at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), which is living up to its title as America's busiest airport. The good news: I'm heading to an undisclosed location to take a couple of days of PTO.
Yesterday, I , "Get ready to be inundated with hyper-targeted AI-generated bot-delivered messaging. There will be no escaping it. (There's no way this gets regulated or stopped. I won't print the reason here, but if you're interested, reach out and I'll explain it in a private email.)" I had no idea how many of you were going to email and text me about this. So, instead of a private email, here's my reasoning…
It's election season, and I'm sure you have received at least one unsolicited text message or email from a political organization asking for donations. I get two or three text messages each day, plus at least a half-dozen emails. I have not signed up to receive any of them. The emails are obviously spam, and while there are rules and regulations against spam emails, the practice is commonplace. But for the excellent filters from the big email providers, our inboxes would be overflowing with spam every day.
Robocalling and bulk text messages are patently illegal. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is the primary law regulating spam text messages. Under the TCPA, it is illegal to send unsolicited commercial text messages without prior express consent from the recipient. Sending spam text messages can result in fines starting at $500 per violation, and can reach up to $1,500 for willful violations.
The use of auto-dialers to send unsolicited messages to random recipients is prohibited, yet this is exactly what spammers do. They program the three digit area code and three digit exchange, then send messages to every number in the block from 0000 to 9999. Yep, it's that easy to send a text message to every single phone number in the USA.
It's illegal. There are strict regulations and severe penalties for breaking the law, which clearly isn't being enforced or having much of an effect. Why not?
Every politician in America uses robocalling and robotexting to solicit donations and votes. There is no political will to end this practice. Why not? Because it works.
What does this have to do with hyper-targeted AI-generated bot-delivered messaging?
If you think robocalls and robotexts are effective, wait until you see how well relentlessly delivered hyper-targeted AI-generated bot-delivered messaging works. It will be stunningly effective. It doesn't take a gigantic leap of logic to assume that there will be no more political will to end this practice than the other (less effective) forms of fundraising and campaigning.
There's more. When you consider the entire value chain, everyone is making money, so everyone is highly unmotivated to end the practice. Could a phone company, for instance, eliminate robocalling or robotexting? Of course they could. Why haven't they?
Call me cynical. Legislators will create all kinds of rules and regulations against hyper-targeted AI-generated bot-delivered messaging. There will be plenty of laws, and these laws will be just as effective as the ones we have now (which is to say: ineffective in the extreme).
As always your thoughts and comments are both welcome and encouraged. Just reply to this email. -s
ABOUT SHELLY PALMER
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named he covers tech and business for , is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular . He's a , and the creator of the popular, free online course, . Follow or visit .
