From impersonation to scams: concerns about the use of AI for voice cloning
Concerns arise over the use of AI for voice cloning.
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is proliferating in various fields and one of them is voice cloning technology, which increasingly has more tools for its use and which, in turn, is causing a number of concerns among users and professionals about possible cases of misuse such as identity theft or scams.
Voice cloning scams and deepfakes
However, these voice impersonations are becoming more and more frequent, especially on social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, which have become one of the preferred dissemination channels for the architects of these scams, due to the fact that millions of people use them on a daily basis and any malicious campaign can have a large reach.
In a time in society where users are constantly dealing with deepfakes, false information and voice impersonations, certain characteristics must be taken into account when consuming content, such as voice consistency, which in the case of cloned voices may have unusual tones or inconsistent patterns.
Likewise, in addition to evaluating the sources, it is advisable to examine the context of the content and to be suspicious.
Voice cloning with AI
Voice cloning using AI tools consists of creating synthetic copies of any person's voice through the use of algorithms and machine learning. In some cases, these tools can replicate a person's speech using audio samples of just a few seconds, achieving realistic results.
Thus, unlike computer-generated synthetic voices, which are created with text-to-speech technologies, voice cloning uses a person's actual voice and, from that, generates a realistic interpretation of the original.
In this regard, there are several AI-powered tools that facilitate voice cloning. One example of this technology is Microsoft's VALL-E, which, using audio recordings as short as three seconds, is able to mimic the speaker's voice while preserving even the emotions and acoustic environment of the message.
The same goes for Open AI's recently announced tool, Voice Engine, a new AI model capable of creating personalized, natural voices with a single 15-second audio sample.
Thus, these tools offer multiple advantages and facilities when it comes to using voice in different types of contexts, whether for the creation of personalized voice assistants, to help people with speech problems, for the development of video games or even for work environments, with applications to marketing or content translation.
