Icon May 23, 2023

The Sound of Security: ValidSoft Detects Senator Blumenthal Utilizing Deepfake Audio.

4 minutes min read

The AI Revolution and Its Double-Edged Sword

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized many aspects of modern life. However, the sophistication of this technology also brings alarming potential for misuse. A recent example in the United States Senate vividly illustrates this point. During an opening statement at a Senate hearing on AI, Senator Blumenthal used a recording that sounded like him, but, as he explained after the stunt, was produced by a so-called voice cloning tool (deepfake audio) and whose content was written by ChatGPT.

This scenario, described by the senator as “eerie, even creepy,” is indicative of the pace at which technology is outstripping regulation. AI, specifically its deepfake audio applications, has evolved to the point where artificial intelligence models can craft speeches, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Bard, and coupled with a AI-based Text to Speech, can mimic voices with startling accuracy to the human ear.

The Growing Threat of Deepfake Audio Applications

While AI continues to deliver tremendous benefits across industries, Blumenthal’s demonstration raises crucial concerns about its potential misuse, like spreading misinformation or exploiting personal data. This has sparked discussions about the implications of this sophisticated technology and the necessity for regulatory measures to control its use.

But what are the plausible solutions to this challenge of detecting AI-generated voice versus a real one? The answer might lie in AI itself.

Benefits of Deploying ValidSoft’s AI-based Voice Verity™, Against AI Voice Mimicking

Our answer is to deal with the advance of speech AI through the use of AI. To any adversarial attack, there is a corresponding detector that can be trained to deal with the attack. This is bread and butter for AI. Here is our recipe: expose our well-designed deep neural network to numerous examples of real and fake voices, assign our expert team of AI specialists to ensure the models are trained with the right balance of data to avoid the usual AI pitfall (bias, overfit), add years of experience in the domain and some of our proprietary speech processing techniques.

Applying advanced deepfake detector to combat the misuse of AI voice cloning technology has several advantages. First, it can detect anomalies that may be inaudible to the human ear. Even the most accurate AI voice clone will struggle to perfectly replicate the exact naturalness of a human voice.  In previous studies we have shown how the latest so called voice cloning tools leave traces, which we call anomalous signal artifacts. .

deepfake audio
Can you identify the 30 seconds of fabricated audio in the initial minutes of Sen. Blumenthal’s opening remarks by examining the spectrogram? Up to 27.00 seconds is Sen. Blumenthal’s genuine voice, as is from 1:00.00 minutes onwards. The section from 27 seconds to 1 minute is the “deepfake”.While it’s a straightforward task in this instance, detecting such falsified segments requires highly sophisticated AI detection capable of handling even the most difficult conditions, such as those encountered in call centers.

Further, as well as our deepfake detection technology processing audio multiple times faster than real-time, our technology is non-intrusive and respects privacy rights, which is a critical consideration given the rising concerns about personal data misuse. ValidSoft has a unique privacy by design approach which is backed by four privacy seals from the European Union – as a company we are uniquely positioned in this regard.

Therefore, the use of detectors, such has our own Voice Verity™ product, will be a game-changer in the fight against deepfakes. By swiftly identifying and flagging potential deepfakes, ValidSoft brings a new unique data point to fraud solutions, to help ensure that artificial voices do not become an avenue for misinformation or manipulation.

Regulatory Frameworks and Proactive Measures in AI Use

The demonstration at the Senate hearing underscored a compelling need for robust regulatory frameworks governing AI use. As technology continues to evolve, the importance of proactive measures, such as deepfake detection and voice biometrics, cannot be overstated. These are scientific areas where ValidSoft truly specializes and is at the forefront of innovation.

As Blumenthal aptly cautioned, if we do not act, we face the risk of technology outpacing regulation, potentially leading to a proliferation of deepfakes and the issues they bring. As we marvel at the progress of AI, we must be equally committed to safeguarding the authenticity and trustworthiness of our communication channels. It is clear that deepfake AI offers a viable and effective tool in our arsenal against the misuse of AI voice cloning (or AI voice mimicking as, by now you would have guessed, we prefer to call them).

Embracing Voice Biometrics: A Beacon of Hope in the AI Era

In the age of AI, deepfake detectors represents a beacon of hope. As AI technologies become more advanced and pervasive, AI-based detectors have the potential to offer a robust defense, helping us ensure that we are interacting with genuine human voices and not AI mimics, and such capabilities will be the only measure of trust and integrity in a metaverse where humans will not be able to tell real from fake. By adopting such technologies, we can ensure trust and integrity are a central plank such that we can enjoy the benefits of AI whilst detecting and preventing its potential misuse.