R U REAL Act

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Defunct
• Most recent activity date: 2025-01-03

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• False or misleading information
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has minimal coverage of approximately 2-3 subdomains, with focus on fraud and manipulation (4.3) and potentially false information (3.1). Coverage is concentrated in the malicious actors domain, specifically addressing AI-enabled fraud and scams through voice/text impersonation in telemarketing contexts.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Information
• Professional & Technical Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

The document primarily governs the Professional and Technical Services sector (specifically telemarketing services) and the Information sector (telecommunications and messaging services). It applies to any entity conducting telemarketing activities using AI, regardless of what products or services they are marketing.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding federal statute (H.R. 7120) introduced in the U.S. Congress that directs the Federal Trade Commission to revise regulations and establishes enhanced civil penalties for violations, with mandatory disclosure requirements and enforcement mechanisms.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: U.S. House of Representatives; Representative Schakowsky
• Summary: The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Ms. Schakowsky on January 29, 2024, and referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer
• Summary: The Act targets any person who makes telemarketing calls or sends text messages using artificial intelligence to emulate a human being. This includes both developers and deployers of AI systems used in telemarketing contexts.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Federal Trade Commission
• Summary: The Federal Trade Commission is explicitly designated as the enforcement authority, with power to revise the Telemarketing Sales Rule, impose civil penalties, and issue cease-and-desist orders.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Federal Trade Commission
• Summary: The Federal Trade Commission serves as the monitoring body through its authority to enforce the Telemarketing Sales Rule and track violations, though explicit monitoring procedures are not detailed in this Act.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily focuses on the Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages, requiring disclosure at the point of deployment (when AI is used in telemarketing calls/texts) and implicitly requiring ongoing monitoring for compliance. It does not address earlier lifecycle stages like planning, data collection, or model development.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• Task-specific AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions artificial intelligence in the context of telemarketing applications that emulate or impersonate human beings. It does not define AI models, AI systems, or specify particular types of AI (frontier, general purpose, generative, etc.). The focus is on AI functionality (emulation/impersonation) rather than technical architecture or compute thresholds.