The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently launched the Voice Cloning Challenge, aimed at fostering the development of ideas to shield consumers from the potential misuse of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled voice cloning for fraudulent activities and other harmful practices.
Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, stated, “We will use every tool to prevent harm to the public stemming from abuses of voice cloning technology. We want to address harms before they hit the marketplace, and enforce the law when they do.”
Stephanie T. Nguyen, the FTC’s Chief Technology Officer, added that the challenge is a critical tool in ensuring companies take responsibility for the effects of their products.
Voice cloning technology has advanced significantly with the evolution of text-to-speech AI technology. While it holds potential benefits for consumers, such as providing medical assistance to those who have lost their voices, the FTC has expressed concerns about its potential misuse. This can range from impersonating family members or business executives to appropriating the voices of creative professionals for fraudulent purposes.
The FTC has previously warned consumers about the misuse of voice cloning for scams and held a workshop in 2020 discussing various issues related to the technology. The agency has vowed to continue using its enforcement authority against companies misusing technology to harm consumers and competition.
The Voice Cloning Challenge, announced today, aims to stimulate the development of innovative ideas for preventing, monitoring, and evaluating the malicious use of voice cloning technology. Challenge submissions must address at least one of these intervention points:
- Prevention or authentication: Proposals should offer a means to restrict the use of voice cloning software by unauthorized users.
- Real-time detection or monitoring: Proposals should provide a way to detect cloned voices or the use of voice cloning technology.
- Post-use evaluation: Proposals should include a method to verify if an audio clip contains cloned voices.
The FTC will accept submissions online from January 2 to January 12, 2024. The challenge will offer a $25,000 prize to the winner.
The Voice Cloning Challenge is the FTC’s fifth challenge issued under the America Competes Act. These challenges aim to encourage the development of tools to address consumer problems, including a 2012 challenge aimed at tackling robocalls and a 2017 challenge focused on addressing security vulnerabilities related to Internet of Things devices.
James Evans and Christine Barker from the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection and Amritha Jayanti from the FTC’s Office of Technology are leading this initiative.
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