Why ‘Voice Cloning’ Concerns Biden’s AI Chief: Insights on Addressing the Issue

• Biden’s AI chief Bruce Reed expresses concern about audio deep fakes.

• According to Politico, Reed says that “voice cloning” is the primary source of his anxiety.

• The accessibility of voice cloning platforms makes them highly vulnerable to misuse.

Lawmakers are increasingly worried about AI technology’s ability to convincingly replicate human voices.

In an interview with Politico, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed emphasized his concerns about the “frighteningly good” nature of voice cloning technology, even though it is still relatively new.

Reed stated, “Society has not yet realized the extent to which perfect voice fakes could disrupt our lives. If people cannot determine whether the voice on the other end of the phone is real or fake, they will be hesitant to answer calls.”

Phone scammers have already started exploiting advancements in voice cloning technology to make their scams more convincing. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that scammers use AI technology to enhance their family emergency scams, successfully convincing people that their family members are in distress.

In one case, a mother in Arizona received a call from a scammer who had used voice cloning software to pretend he had kidnapped her daughter. The mother, believing it was her daughter’s voice, fell for the ruse.

Scammers only need a few seconds of someone’s voice to create an 85% convincing clone, according to a report by cybersecurity company McAfee.

On the other hand, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has leveraged AI-generated clones of his own voice to connect with a broader range of the city’s population. He has been using voice cloning technology to communicate with non-English speaking residents through robocalls in various languages.

While Adams’s initiative may be seen as deceptive by some academics and privacy experts, it highlights the need for politicians to establish clearer guidelines on AI usage.

Many voice cloning platforms are easily accessible and straightforward to use, making them susceptible to misuse.

One such example is ElevenLabs, a free voice cloning platform that only requires one minute of audio to generate a high-quality clone. The company acknowledged increasing instances of voice cloning misuse soon after its beta launch.

Although specific details were not provided at the time, Vice reported that 4chan had uploaded audio deepfake clips generated through ElevenLabs’ software, featuring Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, and Emma Watson making offensive comments.

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