Issue 87 — Is that really you?

INTERROGATING AI

How can you be sure I’m me and you’re you? I’m asking because a person’s vocal identity is hard to verify online, even if you know their voice well. Synthetic speech generation has gotten so good, it’s close to impossible to tag a voice as real just by listening to it.

Earlier this year, New Hampshire voters received a robocall that sounded like Joe Biden. Biden’s voice told them to “save your vote for November,” encouraging them not to vote in the presidential primary. Doesn’t sound like something that Joe would say, and it wasn’t. It was a deepfake of his voice.

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