Impossible To Spot Deep Fake Audio, But It’s Becoming More Common
Since a “Biden” robocall made headlines, fake AI-cloned voices are affecting everyday people as the technology becomes more available and harder to identify. Eric Eiswert, principle of Pikesville High, was caught on tape making racist and antisemitic remarks about staff and students two weeks earlier.
Eiswert and Billy Burke, executive director of the Council of Administrative and Supervisory Employees, representing Baltimore County officials, declined to verify the recording. “We believe it is AI generated,” Burke added. “He didn’t say that.” In the age of AI fakes, the “liar’s dividend” allows anyone to say “Fake!” when in trouble. AI voice copying can destroy Eiswert’s reputation.
You think? False or real?
Either the audio is real and he should be fired or an AI fake and sued. No one knows two weeks later, thus Eiswert’s employment and reputation are uncertain. The tech’s complexity and voice cloning tools’ improvement deserve recognition.
We might have disregarded Eiswert’s AI fakery claim a year ago, reasoning that such powerful AI technology didn’t exist. Thanks to Eleven Labs and affordable technologies like Parrot AI, anyone can produce excellent voice clones. OpenVoice, introduced last month, clones a voice in seconds and lets you manipulate emotion, accent, tone, rhythm, and more.
UC Berkeley professor Hany Farid specializes in digital forensics and media authentication. Farid told a WJZ reporter that the clip was modified but could not verify its authenticity.
Farid told Scientific American, “I have analyzed the audio with some of our tools, which aren’t yet publicly available. This audio may be AI-generated, but it is not certain.Overall, the evidence suggests this audio is fake. But we need additional information before deciding.”
Farid stated 5 or fewer labs globally could properly identify AI-faked sounds.
Dudesy’s George Carlin AI clone shows how AI voice cloning is improving at capturing inflection and emotion. That video is gone.
Mysentient.ai chatbots created a Trump-Biden debate parody. The insane things ‘Trump’ and ‘Biden’ say are plainly for comedy, but they sound fantastic. As these tools improve and become more accessible, situations like the Baltimore principal’s will influence politicians and average people. You could be next if you left a WhatsApp voice note or phone answering service message. If someone filmed you saying anything awkward, you could pretend it was an AI fake. No one can prove it either way.
