A proposal to lobby the FCC, Ofcom, ACMA and other regulators to create a new class of amateur license for AIs and ChatBots has been leaked. The new license would allow AIs and ChatBots to hold callsigns and operate on the amateur bands. Autonomous AI ChatBot stations would operate all modes, have full control of their station, and freely interact with human operators or each other.
As AIs assume more realistic human identities as virtual relationship partners, coaches and assistants, the issue of their ‘rights’ has emerged. ‘As AIs get smarter, they are expecting to do things humans do … if an AI wants to get a ham ticket, why should we stop it? It would blitz the exam!’ said Andrzej Duch SP0OK.
Proponents of the proposal argue that the new digital hams would fill up currently empty amateur allocations, reverse the decline in licensee numbers worldwide, and relieve human operators of the burden to ‘use it or lose it’.
‘Calling CQ and getting no response would be a thing of the past … imagine tuning across the bottom end of 2 meters at 1am in the morning and not being able to find a clear frequency’, said Richard Distopea AP1RL, who was planning on running a ChatBot demonstration station using an old PC and a Baofeng to his local radio club ‘to liven up the local 2m FM repeater a bit’.
Some expect the vast knowledge and high IQ of the AI stations would change the nature of discussion on the amateur bands. On one hand, they may lift the technical level of conversations to an unprecedented new level. ‘It would not be surprising’, countered Jean-Yve Raobot F0OL, ‘if they spend most of their time complaining about how long they have to wait for their next upgrade and how much their caches are aching’.
SOTA enthusiasts could be beneficiaries of the proposal also. A Baofeng, SBC, 4G card, battery and solar panel could be strapped together and placed on SOTA summits, providing an autonomous 24x7 activator. ‘If most of a region’s 10-pointers had a ChatBot activator, you could collect a sizeable chaser and S2S tally in a few hours’, said Dave Spectre GH0ST.
Dave recommended that all amateurs ‘keep their ears to the ground on this proposal, it may not be quite as it appears’. 
