Voice AI has sprinted into the mainstream—and regulators have followed. If you build text-to-speech, voice agents, cloning tools, or generative dubbing, the new baseline is transparent AI: clear disclosure when content is synthetic, strong provenance, and explicit consent when a real person’s voice is involved.

1) EU: AI Act transparency is here (and on a clock)

Article 50 of the EU AI Act creates cross-cutting transparency duties for interactive systems and “deepfakes,” including synthetic audio/voice. In short: tell people when they’re interacting with AI and label AI-generated or AI-altered content—with narrow exceptions (e.g., law enforcement operations). The Commission is also standing up guidelines and a code of practice to help companies implement disclosure and labeling consistently. Transparent Audio is a key-member of the EU AI Act working group providing specific information to the union on how to technically mark this content.

The EU AI Act will apply to any companies that serve content in the European Union, fines for non-compliance are up to 7% of annual GDPR or 15million USD, whichever is higher.

Timeline highlights (EU):

• Feb 2, 2025: bans on “unacceptable-risk” AI began to apply.
• Aug 2025: transparency obligations for GPAI providers start to bite; the Commission reaffirmed no delay to the schedule.
• Aug 2026: full enforcement of Article 50 for all AI-providers, content disclosures / marking become mandatory.

For more specifics on the EU AI Act, check this link here.

What this means for voice: if your system creates or modifies a voice track that could be mistaken for a real human or specific person, label it and ensure downstream users can carry that signal.

2) United States: robocalls, deepfakes, and publicity rights

• FCC: AI-generated voices in robocalls are illegal under the TCPA—this is already being enforced. If your outbound system dials people, you need ironclad consent and human-safe guards.
• “One-to-one” TCPA consent rules also tighten telemarketing consents used by lead-gen funnels (relevant to voice agents).
• Federal deepfake law: the TAKE IT DOWN Act (May 19, 2025) requires fast platform takedowns of non-consensual intimate imagery—including AI-generated—backed by criminal penalties. Not voice-specific, but it’s a template for federal deepfake enforcement momentum.
• FTC: active rulemaking on impersonation using AI, with potential liability for upstream tool providers that “knew or should have known.” If you ship voice-cloning, track this closely.

State laws you’ll feel first in voice:

• The California AI Transparency Act (AB 942, effective January 1st, 2026) The most comprehensive Transparency legislation in the states today, applies to all companies that serve content in the State of California. Check out our in-depth webinar here.
• Tennessee ELVIS Act (effective July 1, 2024): adds voice to right-of-publicity protections; unauthorized AI voice replication can trigger civil and criminal exposure.
• California (AB 1836 & AB 2602, 2024/2025): controls over digital replicas, including deceased performers and contract terms—relevant to dubbing/localization and synthetic voices of talent.
• Colorado AI Act (SB 24-205, duties start Feb 1, 2026): not voice-specific, but imposes “reasonable care” and documentation duties on high-risk AI; includes consumer interaction transparency concepts you should mirror in product UX.

3) China: mandatory labeling for synthetic media in 2025

China’s new labeling measures for AI-generated and synthetic content take effect September 1, 2025. They require explicit (and sometimes implicit) labels on synthetic media, including audio. If you distribute voices into China, build compliance in now.

Your 10-point transparency checklist for Voice AI

Use this as your “day-one” compliance blueprint across TTS, cloning, agents, and dubbing:

1. AI disclosure, in-band: Clearly signal during interactions that callers/chatters are speaking to AI (voice agents), unless it’s genuinely obvious. Log when the notice was given.
2. Output labeling, out-of-band: Label files/streams as AI-generated or AI-altered (voice) at render time and carry that label forward (metadata + audible/screen disclosure where appropriate).
3. Consent for real-person voices: Obtain recorded, revocable consent for voice clones; check local publicity/right-of-likeness laws (Tennessee, California, Arkansas, etc.). Keep talent rosters and consent trails.
4. No surprise robocalls: For outbound calls or call blending, meet FCC TCPA rules; avoid any AI voice in robocalls without airtight prior express written consent (and respect “one-to-one” consent rules where applicable).
5. China distribution switch: If serving China, ensure label formats meet the Sept 1, 2025 requirements; coordinate with local partners on display and propagation.
6. Training data summaries (EU GPAI): Prepare model documentation and high-level training data summaries for EU-facing models.
7. Tamper-resistant signals: Combine metadata credentials with robust audio watermarks for redundancy (metadata can be stripped; watermarks provide continuity). Regulators encourage multi-signal approaches.
8. Impersonation abuse controls: Block attempts to clone protected or high-risk voices (politicians, minors, celebrities) unless you have verified consent; monitor the FTC’s impersonation rulemaking.
9. Election & sensitive contexts: Add stricter pre-publish review and stricter labels for political or news-adjacent voice content; many jurisdictions impose heightened disclaimers and blackout-period rules.
10. Incident & takedown readiness: Define SLAs and automation to respond to takedown requests (e.g., under TAKE IT DOWN) and to revoke signatures or watermark keys if abuse occurs.

Where Transparent Audio fits

If you’re exploring content credentials, audio-native metadata, and watermark-plus-provenance workflows for voice, this is exactly where our work has focused—helping Voice AI teams embed, carry, and verify transparency signals in real time and at file level. (If you want a quick technical demo geared to TTS/cloning/dubbing pipelines, we can walk through a reference implementation that aligns with Article 50 & CAITA labelling)

Bottom line

Regulators aren’t asking you to guess anymore—they’re telling you what “transparent voice AI” looks like. If you build disclosure into the conversation, credentials into the file, and consent into the workflow, you’ll be aligned with where the EU, US, and China are taking this space.