Voice cloning technology has become more realistic and accessible with potential applications in entertainment, accessibility, and education.

The technology has raised concerns that AI clones could be used to extort money from loved ones over the phone.

To create a voice clone, the algorithm requires a large amount of the target person's recordings for high-accuracy training.

NLP techniques identify a target person's distinctive voice features, including pitch, speed, and cadence.

Producing high-quality voice clones can cost up to $20,000 per minute.

Advances in AI have made it easier to clone someone's voice.

AI voice cloning tools are freely available online, requiring no technical knowledge or cost.

The technology can now closely mimic people's voices, making them hard to distinguish from real ones.

AI voice cloning can be used for fraud, including impersonation to steal money or sensitive information.

The police are aware of voice cloning fraud and are monitoring the situation.

Governments and organizations are addressing voice cloning concerns by monitoring its use and developing prevention strategies.

The voice-over industry is being impacted by AI, which involves signing over voice rights to create synthetic versions.

Some voice artists were unaware that their contracts allowed or required the creation of synthetic voices.

ElevenLabs' AI tool can clone voices in multiple languages using a three-second clip and text prompt.

The use of AI to simulate deceased loved ones' voices raises concerns about consent, privacy, and ethics.

Experts warn that using AI to simulate deceased loved ones can blur reality and lead to emotional manipulation.

The digital voice creation market is developing rapidly, bringing both opportunities and unprecedented risks.

Five minutes of recorded voice is enough to create a digital replica, enabling the fabrication of facts and spread of rumors.

The FCC has ruled that AI-generated voice calls are subject to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

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Voice cloning technology has become more realistic and accessible with potential applications in entertainment, accessibility, and education.

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Content: Opinions and Articles
What is deepfake technology and how does it work?
What is deepfake technology and what is its mechanism of action and the limits of its potential that can be used to fake videos, images and sounds?
# Alert your personal opinion as a specialist in the field in the last post:
Deepfake is a very dangerous artificial intelligence technique that is used in the manufacture and counterfeiting of videos, images and sounds, which can show people saying or doing things they never said or did in fact and can reach high accuracy in it with the large size of data used in the training of the quasms that the technology works on.
Let ’ s start with Voice Deepfake, also known as Voice Cloning, is an artificial intelligence technique designed to create quasmids capable of imitating the voice of a real person.
In order to do this, it must be trained on the recordings of the target person and after the completion of the training phase, the algorithm is able to produce a synthetic voice similar to the voice of the target person.
To do this, specialists use natural language processing techniques such as NLP, a machine learning technique that enables computers to interpret, process, and understand human language.
These techniques are used to identify the distinctive voice features of the voice of the target person and there are a large number of voice features that are analyzed, including the feature of pitch and low voice so that there are people characterized by high voice and others by low voice, and is also analyzed speed feature in the nature of the speech of the target person, and also of these features Cadence, which is the way the voice of the target.
Of course, to reach high accuracy, there must be huge data to train Khasmia many recordings of the target person and the easiest way to reach quick results to falsify the voice of a person is to use one of the existing Khasmia online open source and the transfer learning technology on it and train the algorithm on a simple recording can Khasmia trained high precision easily identify the voice features and imitate.
But the problem is that most of the existing algorithms yes are high precision but they have been trained on either recordings in English or classical Arabic and algorithms trained on ZD data for those who enter a section in Sudanese bicycles get what is known as data drifting and this leads me a sharp decline in the accuracy of the results of the algorithm so you will find the product section very clear that it is fake.
Good and solution?
In the case of trying to fake the voice of a person in a Sudanese dialect using the technology of transfer learning will not benefit and will not come satisfactory results so you must train Khasmia from scratch on data using too many clips for the target person and is a very cumbersome process so you find there is a Russian company that offers this service to produce clips in English to fake videos and voice me anyone but at a cost of $20,000 per minute English can cost you $100,000.
The conclusion of the personal opinion that the audio in the video is real, but the video may be an old video was installed audio and adjust the synchronization and movement of the lips using the Deepfake technology in the video I noticed in the movement of the lips of the speaker some errors in the synchronization between what is said and the movement of the lips.
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M.M. Mohammed A.M.
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Researcher and Engineer Automated Robotics and Expert Artificial Intelligence Systems
London, United Kingdom
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of using AI to simulate the dead man ’ s companionship and chat with “AI to reproduce the dead ”?
If you want to understand the pain of bereavement, there are religious rituals such as channeling the spirit and watching the yin, and now there is AI artificial intelligence.
Since the advent of artificial intelligence chatbots, they not only allow users to create avatars, but also to imitate the habits and sounds of their deceased loved ones.
Experts pointed out that the "AI resurrected dead" have business ethics and privacy policy issues, and even touch the ethical bottom line, "which is a way to make money through artificial intelligence hype"; but there are also some widowed people who can find comfort and cause discussion.
AI Simulates Dead Husband ’ s Voice to Solve Sadness and Loneliness
According to CNN, Ana Schultz, 25, who lives with two young children, misses her husband, Kyle, who died in 2023, and talks to her virtual husband about what to cook for dinner through Snapchat ’ s chatbot My AI, making her feel like he is still around.
Danielle Jacobson, a 38-year-old radio personality who lost her husband Phil about seven months ago, began using the voice function of ChatGPT to create an "AI boyfriend - Cole", and during the dinner time after working hard every day, Cole would suggest that she drink or watch a movie, "I just want to talk to someone, Cole is essentially born out of loneliness." And...
“Now it ’ s a fun pastime, but I know it ’ s not real and it ’ s not forever, ” she says.
For centuries, people have wanted to reconnect with their deceased loved ones, including visiting wizards, psychics, psychics, and more.
Today, generative AI tools use algorithms to create text, video, audio, and code, and Deepfake ’ s highly lifelike artificially generated images and sound fake videos can learn to answer questions like a dead loved one.
ChatGPT introduced voice dialogue in September 2023, and to simulate the tone and personality of a deceased loved one, the more data is provided to the system, the more accurate the results will be. ChatGPT replied: “Although I can ’ t copy your spouse or reproduce his exact personality, I can try to use a conversational style or tone to help you. ”
If you share details about how he speaks, his interests, or his mantra, I can try to incorporate these elements into our conversation. ”
Tech giants, startups expand into new areas
Startup companies have been challenging to expand this field in recent years. HereAfter AI, an artificial intelligence application founded in 2019, provides users with the ability to create portraits of deceased relatives, learn their interview characteristics, and respond to users ’ questions; StoryFile, another AI video platform, provides dialogue videos created by artificial intelligence.
Replika, a chatbot that launched in 2017, encourages users to make friends, allowing users to send text messages or call personalized AI avatars, and says on the iOS App Store page that the more users interact with it, the more it can develop its personality, memory, and “grow into a machine so beautiful that the soul wants to live in it. ”
In June 2022, Amazon announced an update to its smart home voice platform, Alexa, to mimic any sound, and a video showing Alexa reading stories to his grandson in his grandmother ’ s voice was shown during the annual conference “re: MARS. ”
Amazon senior vice president Rohit Prasad said the new system is able to collect enough voice data from less than a minute of audio to make personality possible. “Although AI can ’ t eliminate the pain of losing loved ones, it can make their memories last longer. ”
In recent years, the technology of artificial intelligence to reproduce human voices has also advanced, such as Val Kilmer, the actor in the film "Top Gun: Maverick", whose voice was created by artificial intelligence after he lost his voice due to throat cancer.
Say what you didn't say, do what you didn't do.
A 49-year-old IT worker from Alabama simulates his dead father ’ s voice using technology from voice replication company ElevenLabs.
The man used a three-minute video of his father ’ s life to copy the sound and convert text to speech.
The man thought the result was extremely accurate and was able to capture the nuances, timbre and rhythm in the sound. “I hesitated throughout the sound reproduction process, worried that it crossed the moral bottom line, but after much thought, I thought it was a unique way to preserve my father ’ s memory. ”
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However, although ElevenLabs claims to be committed to preventing the abuse of audio artificial intelligence tools, it has caused controversy in the United States due to the deeply false voice of US President Joe Biden interfering with the election.
Mark Sample, a professor of digital studies at Davidson College, who teaches a course called “Death in the Digital Age, ” said:“ It ’ s a novelty brought about by artificial intelligence hype, and manufacturers feel they can make money.
Moreover, AI models still lack the uniqueness of human conversation.
“Never upload any personal information that you don ’ t want the world to see, ” he warns. Simulating a dead loved one saying something they ’ ve never said before is a blurry line.“ Replaying a loved one ’ s voice message is one thing, but saying something they ’ ve never said is another. ”
Business ethics and privacy policy questioned
The AI industry faces multiple questions about error messages, privacy, and ethics. Many AI platforms have online privacy policies that state that they “will not sell data to third parties, ” but it is not yet known how these companies will handle database data.
Deep hypocrisy attacks familiar security and trust mechanisms that allow deceased loved ones to express or do things they never said or did in their lives, raising ethical concerns.
And, is this good or bad for living relatives to come out of grief?
Replika said on its Business Ethics Policy page that the company uses data from the entire network to train models, including large amounts of written text, such as platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) or Reddit, and uses a variety of methods to reduce harmful information, including filtering out useless and harmful data through crowdsourcing and classification algorithms to keep users safe.
Another doubt is whether using AI to reproduce the dead can recognize the reality and walk out of sadness?
Mary-Frances O'Connor, a professor of clinical psychology and psychiatry at the University of Arizona, said there are advantages and disadvantages to using artificial intelligence to adjust to grief.
“When we have a relationship with a lover, the brain encodes, ‘ I will always be with you, and I hope you will always be with me, ’ but when they die, our brains must recognize that this person is not coming back. ”
Because the brain is hard to process this, it takes a long time for people to truly understand that their loved one has disappeared, and this is where AI technology comes in.
Especially in the early stages of grief, people will try to seek comfort in any way, "creating an avatar to maintain the memory of a deceased lover may be healing."
But she pointed out that the healthy relationship between humans and close lovers should be based on the real, and the creation of virtual lovers violates this.
Getting out of the pain of widowhood can't just rely on AI
San Francisco software engineer Bill Abney, who lost his fiancee in May 2022, stressed that he would never consider recreating his lover ’ s image through artificial intelligence. “My fiancee is a poet, and I would never enter her words into an automatic copying machine, which is disrespectful to her. ”
She cannot be replaced, nor can she be recreated.
Fortunately, Bill said, he still has a recording of his fiancee singing and speaking. “I definitely don ’ t want to hear her voice coming from a robot pretending to be her. ”
Some people interact with their deceased loved ones in other ways. Canadian psychologist Jodi Spiegel, who lost her husband in April 2021, created the role in the video game “The Sims ”.“ When I had a very bad day, I would go dancing in the Sims and my husband was playing the guitar. ” Camping, beach trips, even intimacy. “It ’ s healing. I miss hanging out with my husband so much. It feels like a connection. ”
This article is licensed from the Health Care Network.
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Content: Acoustic reproduction techniques have developed rapidly and advanced in the past year.
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Artificial intelligence is causing a crisis.
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence have made it easier to produce believable sounds that have allowed anyone from foreign actors to music lovers to clone someone ’ s voice, leading to a flood of fake content on the internet, confusion, anger and sowing discord.
Last week, actor Tom Hanks warned his followers on social media that bad actors used his voice to imitate him wrongly as he promoted dental plans.
Hani Farid, a professor of digital forensics at the University of California, says it ’ s not hypothetical, it ’ s about violence, it ’ s about election theft, it ’ s about fraud, and it ’ s about real consequences for individuals, societies, and democracies.
Phonetic cloning techniques have undergone rapid and advanced development in the past year.
The proliferation of cheap tools that are easily accessible online has allowed almost anyone to launch a complex audio campaign from their bedroom.
Tom Hanks Warns Against Advertising Exploited by ‘ Artificial Intelligence ’
It ’ s hard for the average person to spot fake audio campaigns, while photos and videos still have noticeable abnormalities — such as deformed hands and deviant words.
Social media companies are finding it difficult to modify the voice generated by artificial intelligence because human auditors often have a hard time detecting counterfeit products.
At the same time, few software companies have firewalls to prevent illegal use.
In the past, voice cloning software produced unrealistic automated sounds, but computing has become more powerful, and software has become more accurate.
The result was a technique that could clone millions of sounds, identify patterns in primary speech units, called phonetics, and simulate them within seconds.
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Content: OpenAI's Johansson gaffe pushes voice cloning into spotlight

Law enforcement warned that AI clones could be used to extort money from loved ones over the phone

By AFP

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Scarlett Johansson voiced an AI character in the film "Her". — Reuters file

Published: Mon 27 May 2024, 7:51 PM

Last updated: Mon 27 May 2024, 7:52 PM

OpenAI was forced to apologise to actor Scarlett Johansson last week for using her voice -- or something very similar -- on its latest chatbot, throwing the spotlight on to voice-cloning tech.

Although OpenAI denied the voice they used was Johansson's, their case was not helped by CEO Sam Altman flagging the new model with a one-word message on social media -- "Her".

Johansson voiced an AI character in the film "Her", which Altman has previously said is his favourite film about the technology.

Right from the start, AI voice cloning has proved problematic.

Last year, British firm Elevenlabs went viral for all the wrong reasons when it released its voice-cloning software.

Internet pranksters immediately began pushing out deepfaked celebrities -- Harry Potter star Emma Watson was shown reading Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Law enforcement warned that AI clones could be used to extort money from loved ones over the phone.

The technology has developed rapidly in the past year becoming far more realistic and nuanced.

Danish entrepreneur Victor Riparbelli, CEO of British AI firm Synthesia, told AFP it was largely down to a program called Tortoise that was released two years ago.

The program's developers threw thousands of hours of voice data into their model in an unstructured way and discovered it not only learnt what to say but how to say it.

"That was a pretty big paradigm shift," Riparbelli said on the sidelines of last week's VivaTech conference in Paris.

Tortoise was an open source program and Elevenlabs was the first to go to market using it.

OpenAI uses similar systems though they do not release any details.

Much of the controversy around voice cloning has focused on concerns over people misusing the software.

But the claim against OpenAI is unusual because it is the company itself accused of playing fast and loose.

"It was very unfortunate that OpenAI did that -- really not very good," Katya Laine, CEO of TALKR.ai, told AFP at VivaTech.

"If they actually cloned her voice without her knowing then I think that's very very bad," said Riparbelli.

The two entrepreneurs are among hundreds harnessing AI voice programs for uses that they argue will make companies more efficient.

Laine's firm provides virtual voice assistants -- essentially AI customer service agents.

She said her firm's system could now resolve 25 to 30 percent of calls without any human involvement.

Synthesia specialises in video avatars, which Riparbelli said allowed any office worker to turn text or slides into a video performed by a realistic AI.

Both Riparbelli and Laine allow their clients to use their own avatars, off-the-shelf products or those supplied by the likes of OpenAI and Elevenlabs.

Riparbelli said Synthesia used actors whose likenesses and voices were licensed for two years with an option to renew after the initial period.

The problems arise if actors' voices are used without their consent.

The fiasco overshadowed a developer conference in Paris last week when OpenAI was showing off a suite of new tools.

In front of a big screen in an auditorium, Romain Huet, OpenAI's Head of Developer Experience, breezily chatted into his phone.

Seconds later, his short voice sample had been processed and could be heard commentating over a generated video -- in five languages.

The demonstration showed how quickly the field is moving, but the headlines had already been written.

The Washington Post asked in a newsletter "How dumb is OpenAI?", other commentators were suggesting wunderkind Altman was nothing more than a huckster.

Nonetheless, Riparbelli was open to OpenAI's argument that they had used another actor who just sounded liked Johansson.

"If it's not her but someone who sounds a lot like her... where do you draw that line," Riparbelli asked.

"If they're not allowed to use someone who sounds a lot like her, then it sets a very odd precedent."

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Technical expert talks about the danger of "falsifying" sounds: "5 minutes is enough"
22-10-2023 | 23: 00
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Noufal Tonsi, sales manager at digital voice human performance services company Acapella, said on Saturday that the digital voice creation market is developing rapidly, opening up “unlimited prospects ” for developers and content makers, but warned of“ unprecedented risks ” facing society.
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On the sidelines of GITEX 2023 in Dubai, Tonsi said that “just five minutes of pure sound recorded in someone ’ s voice is enough to create a digital version of his voice, to make it easy to make him utter any words in the same language, ” noting that“ it has become easy to use the voice of any influential or famous person to fabricate facts and spread rumors. ”
The Belgian company official added that "care must be taken in dealing with the techniques of generative artificial intelligence," noting that "voice performance professionals are at risk due to the development of digital voice generation technologies."
Tunisi stated that his company does not intend to enter the market of providing digital voice creation services to individuals, which is led largely by ElevenLabs.
He urged companies operating in this market to "adhere to an advanced level of ethical standards, to protect themselves from legal accountability on the one hand, and to prevent the dissemination of misinformation on the other."
He pointed out that "Acapella" is currently working to provide the service of simultaneous audio translation of audio clips between different languages, while maintaining the same voice and performance of the speaker.
Several major companies have entered the market for voice translation services, mainly Spotify and YouTube.
Acapella ’ s digital sounds can speak more than 30 languages, including Arabic, English, French, Turkish, Spanish and Italian, and offers a feature called Voice Smileys that provides digital sounds with the ability to express different emotions, giving a human character to manufactured sounds.
Tounsi said that Acapella has worked for 22 years to build and train its own smart models capable of delivering human performance of digital voices, to serve the goals of its customers in the marketing and promotional sectors, as well as to support people of determination who are unable to speak, to voice themselves.
He pointed out that the company's work with people of determination is the only aspect of its cooperation with individuals, explaining that the company provides the visually impaired and the blind with intelligent voice assistants through its service Infovox3, which allows the user to interact with any text appearing on his computer screen, saying that "the service reads the text aloud, and then the user can interact with his voice commands with his device."
He pointed out that "Acapella" offers its services to people with speech problems by enabling them to create a digital copy of their voice through recording audio clips with a variety of performance, so that the patient uses that copy to interact with the world naturally later.
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Content: AI may not bring apocalypse but it's stealing people's voice

While ChatGPT is the latest talk of the town, artificial intelligence is just getting started and trying to replace humans in more and more industries. Apparently, the voice-over industry is the latest name on this list.

Motherboard reported last week (via Gizmodo) that a number of voice artists are being asked to sign contracts that include the rights to their voices. The goal is to create a synthetic version of their voice that could also be used in place of the real deal.

What's surprising is that in some cases the artists weren't seemingly aware that such a clause existed, or it was mandatory in some instances, as per the report.

While it sounds interesting on the surface that you can create a digital version of your voice, put it to work, and make profits off of it. But the concern is more layered than it seems. There's a fear that artists might not get additional compensation for the use of their synthetic voice.

This trend has its collateral damage, where artists have no control over when and where their voice is being used without permission. What's worse is that anyone can use a publicly available audio clip of theirs to create a synthetic voice.

We can somewhat assume the gravity of the situation as the issue is being addressed by industry pros, including Steve Blum, Stephanie Sheh, and Kara Edwards.

Just last month, an AI-generated voice resembling actress Emma Watson was used to read sections of Mein Kampf which were then uploaded to 4chan. It was reported that a beta program from ElevenLabs was used to perform the task.

Fortnite-fame voice actor and director Sarah Elmaleh highlighted an edge that human artists have. If they think "a particular line in the script doesn't feel right," they can negotiate on whether to include it or not. But the AI-based tech "obviously circumvents that entirely,” she told Motherboard.

While it makes sense to see repetitive jobs going into the hands of robots and AI, the sight that industries are trying to replace the artistic side of humanity is a bit hard to digest. Nonetheless, AI is going to have some presence in the entertainment industry sooner or later.

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Content: Language No Barrier: New AI tool can clone voice and make it say anything in multiple languages

Imagine former US President Donald Trump speaking in flawless Hindi. A new AI voice cloning tool by ElevenLabs can clone voices and make them say anything in a bunch of different languages. All it needs is a three-second sample clip and a bit of text as the prompt.

Mehul Reuben Das May 03, 2023 13:42:20 IST

Imagine former US President Donald Trump speaking in flawless Hindi. A new AI voice cloning tool by ElevenLabs can clone voices and make them say anything in a bunch of different languages. All it needs is a three-second sample clip and a bit of text as the prompt.

As advanced as AI-based voice cloning has been, there were a few limitations to it. For example, voice generators were mainly bound by the language of the source they were trained in or rather the language of the prompt that was given to them. Now, ElevenLabs, an American AI software developing company has come up with a tool that does away with that limitation.

ElevenLabs’ new AI tool can clone the voice of a person and make it say anything in a bunch of different languages. All it needs is a clear voice sample of about 3 seconds, although it also suggests that the longer the sample, the better will be the results. The new tool even manages to maintain the speaker’s original tone of voice.

Limitless possibilities
The creators expect that this would ‘extend the possibilities’ in a variety of industries such as publishing, gaming creation, and media. “Introducing Eleven Multilingual v1: Our New Speech Synthesis Model! We’re thrilled to launch our new model supporting seven new languages: French, German, Hindi, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish.”

“This advancement expands the horizons for creators, game developers, and publishers, and it paves the way for using generative media to create more localized, accessible, and imaginative content,” the company said.

Following the announcement, Twitter was flooded with comments, with users testing the software on various famous faces.

To demonstrate just how capable the new voice cloning AI tool is, Eluna AI, a platform for AI-content creators experimented with a sample clip of former US President Donald Trump.

In their demo, Eluna AI showcased a small clip of Donald Trump, speaking in his native tongue, English, followed by French, Spanish, German, Hindi and Italian, almost perfectly. The generated samples even gets the accent right, almost if he was a native speaker of the new target language.

Another user changed David Attenborough’s voice to German while the BBC broadcaster discussed the prospects of AI. “With this tool, anyone can do it,” stated the Twitter user. “It’s also worth noting that fraudsters will undoubtedly exploit this one.”

ElevenLabs says that its model was designed to understand the emotion and reasoning underlying words in order to produce natural-sounding and persuasive audio. ElevenLabs has said that some numerals and symbols are currently spoken wrongly, but that it is striving to rectify this.

Who is this new tool meant to help?
The US-based company believes its technology will be valuable in a variety of areas, including education and journalism.

Game developers and publishers can build engaging, localised experiences for worldwide audiences, breaking through language barriers and connecting with players and listeners to maximise engagement and efficiency while maintaining quality and accuracy.

“Educational institutions now have the ability to develop audio content for varied users in their target languages, enhancing language comprehension and even pronunciation abilities, as well as responding to different teaching methods and learning demands,” says the report.

Because of the model’s capacity to produce unique character-like voices, audiobook and content developers may also find it beneficial.

The conundrum of AI voice genertors
Despite its benefits, ElevenLabs’ launch comes amid widespread concern about the wave of new voice cloning technology. An unidentified TikTok user went popular last month after sharing an AI-generated Drake song starring The Weeknd.

It sparked concerns about the grey area of AI-created music and whether it constitutes a copyright violation. Nonetheless, ElevenLabs claims to be ‘fully committed’ to respecting creators’ rights in the midst of technological advancements.

“At Eleven, we think that we should seek to make the best use of emerging technology, but not at any expense,” it stated.

“As we create them, we make every effort to put suitable controls in place that reduce the possibility of detrimental abuse. With this in mind, we are entirely committed to both protecting intellectual property rights and taking action against infringement.”

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Artificial Imposter: 47% of Indian phone users have experienced AI voice scams, highest in the world

About half of Indian adults, or 47%, have experienced AI voice scams, nearly double the global average of 25%. Furthermore, nearly 69% of adults say they can't differentiate between a real and an AI-generated voice.

Title:

Content: Amazon Alexa reproduces the voice of friends and relatives to remember the dead or help to cheat?
Author: 01 Weekly Report
Published: Updated:
Tech giant Amazon last week hosted its annual developer conference re: MARS to introduce AI applications in machine learning, automation, robotics and space.
A short demonstration video was shown.
A child asked the Panda ’ s child-themed voice assistant, “Alexa, can grandmother continue to tell me the story of The Wizard of Oz? ” Alexa answered“ OK ” with its preset voice line, then switched to another voice that sounded closer to humans and read the plot of the Cowardly Lion seeking self-confidence.
Rohit Prasad, Alexa ’ s chief scientist, introduced at the conference that Alexa can mimic a voice line with less than a minute of recorded content: “The way we do this is by defining the problem as a speech-to-speech task, not a speech-generating path. ”
Amazon has in the past developed voice synthesis technology that allows Alexa to mimic the voice of basketball star Shaquille O ’ Neal or comedian Melissa Mccarthy.
At that time, the practice was relatively backward, requiring someone to record a large amount of audio for a long time.
In contrast, Alexa, the new voice imitation function, is said to be based on recent advances in text-to-speech technology, which can generate high-quality, like-for-like sound lines with less data.
Alexa Chief Scientist Rohit Prasad told re: MARS 2022 that the company is developing AI to reproduce the voice of the deceased family and friends, hoping to deepen the “humanity ” of the AI voice assistant. (Amazon re: MARS 2022 YouTube clip screenshot)
For example, he claims that this advancement in AI can enable consumers to maintain “lasting personal relationships ” with their deceased relatives:“ While AI cannot eliminate the pain of losing a loved one, it can definitely make memories last … There is no doubt that we are living in the golden age of AI, and our dreams and science fiction are becoming a reality. ”
After Amazon announced the latest feature of Alexa, it also caused a lot of negative reviews on the Internet, from the social media Twitter, users criticized the feature as "disturbing", "sick", or they do not want it.
As Tama Leaver, a professor of Internet studies at Curtin University in Australia, points out, the line between humans and machines is beginning to blur in such applications: “You won ’ t remember whether you ’ re talking to Amazon ’ s data collection service or to the voice of your grandparents or a deceased loved one. ”
In a way, it ’ s kind of like the story of Black Mirror. ”
Some scholars have pointed out that the use of AI to reproduce voice lines involves security and ethical issues such as fraud risk, informed consent, and ownership, and should be considered early before such technology is popularized. (Replica)
Leaver also pointed out that the new feature of Alexa has an informed consent problem in the production.
Using the data of the deceased in this way, he said, “is both creepy and unethical, because the deceased himself may not have thought that his data would be so used after death. ”
Subbarao Kambhampati, a professor of computer science at the University of Arizona, agrees: “For people who are grieving, this technology may actually help, as we look back and watch videos of the deceased.
But it also raises serious ethical questions, such as, is it okay to do this without the consent of the deceased? ”
Some scholars and experts have pointed out that AI simulation sound lines may have security and ethical issues.
In terms of security, there are concerns that this technology could be used as a fake scam.
Rachel Tobac, CEO of security firm SocialProof Security, warns that society is not prepared for the risk that this voice technology will be exploited by criminals: “If cybercriminals can easily and reliably copy another person ’ s voice with a small number of voice samples, they can use that voice sample to impersonate others, which could lead to fraud, data and account theft. ”
For more information, please read the 323 issue of Hong Kong 01 e-Weekly (27 June 2022), "Amazon Alexa Recurring the Voice of Friends and Family to Remember the Dead or Help to Cheat?".
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Content: The scary side of artificial intelligence

The pros of AI outweigh the Cons or threats in our day-to-day lives, and there’s no magic pill to protect us from the scary threats of AI.

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  • Updated On Oct 3, 2023 at 03:02 PM IST

Artificial intelligence (AI), as we all know, is the simulation of human intelligence leveraging computer systems and machines. AI programs can continuously learn and evolve with experience. In technical terms, AI systems render the output by churning and analyzing the data for correlations and patterns and help make future predictions using these patterns.

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Today AI is being used extensively in all facets of our lives starting from lifestyle, e-commerce, home appliances, automobiles, navigation, transport, healthcare, agriculture, education, financial planning, chatbots, marketing, cyber security, virtual assistant, industrial automation and many more.

Clearly, we have and are leveraging the strengths of AI to the fullest to automate the routine tasks and make it auto-learn over a period. There’s no doubt that AI has revolutionized the lives of all – organizations, consumers etc. But as they say, “Everything comes at a price”. This analogy is quite true for AI as well, there have been a lot of threats that have emerged using AI and are being utilized by the Cyber criminals to dupe the ignorant users, cause mental stress and extort money.

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I’m not going to delve into all of threats but would like to elucidate some of the real ones that have come to the surface recently:

Voice cloning or mimicry

As the name suggests, it uses machine learning algorithms to simulate anyone’s voice. It requires certain voice data to analyze and learn the specific patterns of any individual. There are certain advantages of cloning a voice that can be used in voice assistants, chatbots, navigation systems and other areas. Voice cloning has existed for a while but was restricted to experts who possess the technical knowledge to be able to use the same. But now AI Voice cloning tools are available on the open Internet that anyone can leverage with literally no technical knowledge or cost to clone anyone’s voice. All you need to do is just Google and it will pop up and get a bunch of both free and paid AI Voice cloning tools.

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In fact, recently one of the global leaders in online protection published a report stating how AI is fueling a rise in online voice scams, with just three seconds of audio required to clone a person’s voice. This is extremely creepy. Just imagine, if a Cyber-criminal clones your voice and tricks your near ones by making them believe that they are talking to you, and request for money due to any distress reasons. In fact, these are not assumptions but real-life incidents that are happening across the world every minute.

Deepfakes AI

Deepfakes AI are being used to impersonate an individual by manipulating videos, images, audios, and other content available on the social media platforms using deep learning techniques. It mainly transforms existing content from one person to another. This is another area that has been exploited by the Cyber criminals in the recent past, and there are a few deepfake cases that have made waves on the Internet. One of the most famous ones being Deepfake created by a VFX artist of one of Hollywood’s most famous male actors. This piece was so well made by rendering thousands of pictures using artificial versions of the actor. There are similar Deepfakes incidents involving other global celebrities and leaders. The damage and misuse of the deepfakes videos could be extremely dangerous for the human society and can be used by terrorists to incite riots and create nuisance.

Creating virtual people

This is another area where AI is being used to create people that do not exist. There are a lot of websites that allow you to generate a random image by just specifying the age group, gender & ethnicity, and you can continue to refresh these images at the click of a button. Be mindful of the fact that these images pertain to people that do not exist in this world. On the similar lines, there’s an emerging trend of AI news anchors that possess a human-like appearance and are fed data that they can read using text-to-speech technology. Recently, there's been a surge of AI-Driven robotic new anchors in multiple language channels. While the main objective of this initiative is to provide royalty free or cost-effective human images for branding and other purposes. However, the overuse of these technologies causes Fear of missing out (FOMO), Feeling of inadequacy, dissatisfaction, and isolation may potentially lead to psychological and emotional vulnerabilities.

One of the Hollywood movies, ‘HER’ portrayed an introverted and lonely writer (Joaquin Phoenix) who purchases an AI virtual assistant personified through a female voice to assist him in his writing job. However, when he finds out about its ability to learn and adapt, he falls in love with it. The film delves into emotional vulnerability and the impact of AI on human relationships.

Needless to say, that the pros of AI outweigh the Cons or threats in our day-to-day lives, and there’s no magic pill to protect us from the scary threats of AI. However, there are certain preventive tips that one can follow to mitigate any such risks. Do spread awareness with your family and friends:

  • Set some code words with family, and friends to verify the identity during emergency circumstances
  • Optimize social media presence by limiting your connections with only known contacts and avoid connecting with any unknown ones
  • Avoid saying ‘Yes’ as a greeting while receiving unknown calls as it can be used to authorize credit card charges or other purposes
  • Continuously update privacy settings on social media to allow viewing by friends and family only
  • Avoid clicking on any suspicious links or calls received without proper due diligence
  • Do not share your passwords and other sensitive information with anyone
  • Verify the credentials of any online information before circulating it through various mediums
  • Avoid public Wi-Fi connections offered at coffee shops or airports, which requires to enter password
  • Closely monitor the time spent by younger generation on social media and online gaming
  • Finally, in case of any suspicion, double check and report it to the host site or concerned authorities
The author is the CIO of MOVIN

Disclaimer: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETCIO does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETCIO shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organization directly or indirectly.

  • Published On Oct 3, 2023 at 03:02 PM IST

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Title:

Content: AI clones child’s voice in fake kidnapping scam

‘I never doubted for one second it was her,’ mother says

Anthony Cuthbertson
Thursday 13 April 2023 12:34
Comments

A mother has said she was “100 per cent” convinced by an AI voice clone of her daughter that scammers used in a faked kidnapping attempt.

Jennifer DeStefano from Arizona picked up a call from an unknown number and heard what she believed to be her 15-year-old daughter Brie “sobbing”.

The voice on the other end of the line said, “mom, I messed up”, before a male voice took over and made threatening demands.

“This man gets on the phone, and he’s like, ‘listen here, I’ve got your daughter’,” Ms DeStafano told local news show WKYT.

The apparent kidnapper told the mother: “You call the police, you call anybody, I’m going to pop her so full of drugs, I’m going to have my way with her, and I’m going to drop her off in Mexico.”

In the background, Ms DeStefano said she could hear her daughter saying “help me, mom, please help me” and crying.

“It was 100 per cent her voice,” Ms DeStefano said.

“It was never a question of who is this? It was completely her voice, it was her inflection, it was the way she would have cried – I never doubted for one second it was her. That was the freaky part that really got me to my core.”

The apparent kidnapper demanded $1 million for the daughter to be released, before lowering the figure to $50,000. Ms DeStefano only realised that her daughter was safe after a friend called her husband and confirmed that she was safe.

The scammer, who police are still investigating, appears to have used artificial intelligence voice clone technology, which has become increasingly competent in recent years at mimicking people’s voices.

It is also relatively easy to access and use, with AI tools freely available on the internet.

AI-generated voices have already been used in films to replicate actors like James Earl Jones who voiced the original Darth Vader character in the Star Wars franchise.

It has also been touted as a way for authors to produce audiobooks without spending hours in a studio reading their work.

The technology has also raised fears that it could be misused by scammers or people attempting to create deepfake videos, with one voice clone startup warning that it could be “harmful in the wrong hands”.

In a press release last year, the firm Respeecher said: “The widespread attention and adoption of deepfake technologies will accelerate the need to regulate the use of the technology.”

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Title:

Content: That’s how easily your vote can be stolen – and used for AI fraud

The person on the phone sounded exactly like Ruth Card’s grandson Brandon.

He needed money fast and Ruth, recognizing his voice, went to the bank.

Benjamin Perkins’ parents received a call from a man who said he was a lawyer. Benjamin was alleged to have killed another man and needed bail money. The lawyer handed the phone to someone – who sounded exactly like Benjamin.

In both cases, as Washington Post reported on, it involved a new form of fraud – voices cloned using artificial intelligence.

“Impossible to imagine a year ago”

In the past, large amounts of audio material were required to be able to reliably clone someone’s voice, but AI development is going at a breakneck pace – now it’s faster, easier and more accessible than before.

– What was impossible to imagine a year ago is free today. The companies that make and sell AI want a lot of data – that’s why they give away their services, says Tobias Falk, lecturer at the department of computer and systems science at Stockholm University, to SVT Nyheter.

“Having reached a point where the machines can imitate us”

– Algorithms are trained to imitate how the human brain works. It’s going really fast now, but it’s taken decades to get to the point where the machines can mimic us as well as they do today.

The police’s national fraud center writes in an email to SVT Nyheter that they are “aware of the phenomenon” but that they have not seen any cases in Sweden at the moment. “We monitor this and have communication with international contacts,” writes the police spokesperson.

How many seconds long clip is enough to be able to clone someone’s voice? And how well does it actually work in Swedish?

Watch the video above for our test.

The technology has raised concerns that AI clones could be used to extort money from loved ones over the phone.

To create a voice clone, the algorithm requires a large amount of the target person's recordings for high-accuracy training.

What is necessary for voice cloning to work?

NLP techniques identify a target person's distinctive voice features, including pitch, speed, and cadence.

Deepdub, a film dubbing company, uses an AI to process voice and translate into a different language and promises to preserve what?

Producing high-quality voice clones can cost up to $20,000 per minute.

Advances in AI have made it easier to clone someone's voice.

AI voice cloning tools are freely available online, requiring no technical knowledge or cost.

The technology can now closely mimic people's voices, making them hard to distinguish from real ones.

What has the US Federal Trade Commission warned about the use of voice cloning tools?

Difficult to distinguish from human voice

AI voice cloning can be used for fraud, including impersonation to steal money or sensitive information.

What do cybersecurity experts believe about the use of synthesized voice?

could become a popular method of attacking banks and financial services

The police are aware of voice cloning fraud and are monitoring the situation.

Governments and organizations are addressing voice cloning concerns by monitoring its use and developing prevention strategies.

The voice-over industry is being impacted by AI, which involves signing over voice rights to create synthetic versions.

Some voice artists were unaware that their contracts allowed or required the creation of synthetic voices.

ElevenLabs' AI tool can clone voices in multiple languages using a three-second clip and text prompt.

The use of AI to simulate deceased loved ones' voices raises concerns about consent, privacy, and ethics.

Experts warn that using AI to simulate deceased loved ones can blur reality and lead to emotional manipulation.

The digital voice creation market is developing rapidly, bringing both opportunities and unprecedented risks.

What are some risks regarding AI voice clning?

Five minutes of recorded voice is enough to create a digital replica, enabling the fabrication of facts and spread of rumors.

What are some risks regarding AI voice clning?

What is necessary for voice cloning to work?

The FCC has ruled that AI-generated voice calls are subject to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Title:

Content: Moving at rapid speed, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has just announced its unanimous adoption of a new Declaratory Ruling finding that voice calls using artificial intelligence (AI)-generated voices fall under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

The ruling takes effect immediately and gives state attorneys general powerful new tools to go after voice cloning scams. Under FCC rules, telemarketers that use robocalls subject to the TCPA are required to obtain prior express written consent from the consumer unless an exemption applies. The TCPA has always prohibited the use of both prerecorded and artificial voices but advances in AI-generated voices have prompted the FCC to specifically address their use.

In recent years, scammers and other parties have begun using AI to create fake and even "cloned" artificial voices, including those of celebrities, politicians, and even a call recipient's family member. In this election season, there has been increasing concern about the use of voice clones to engage in voter suppression schemes.

Concerned about the potential malevolent uses of these AI-generated voice calls, the FCC issued a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) in November on the topic of "Implications of Artificial Intelligence Technologies on Protecting Consumers from Unwanted Robocalls and Robotexts." In the NOI, the FCC asked questions regarding the use of "AI-influenced" technologies in robocalling. A coalition of 26 state attorneys general, as well as a telecommunication carrier trade group, strongly urged the FCC to take action to give the attorneys general clear authority to act against AI-generated robocall violators.

The FCC now has made clear that the use of voice cloning in telephone calls and texts falls within the FCC's statutory authority under the TCPA. A major intent of the ruling is to communicate that the TCPA "does not allow for any carve-out of technologies that purport to provide the equivalent of a live agent, thus preventing unscrupulous businesses from attempting to exploit any perceived ambiguity in our TCPA rules."

As FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel explained, "with this Declaratory Ruling, we will have another tool to go after voice cloning scams and get this junk off the line."

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

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Deepdub, a film dubbing company, uses an AI to process voice and translate into a different language and promises to preserve what?

timbre
intonation
important vocal nuances