In our recent report with Voicebot.ai, over 2,000 U.S. consumers were surveyed about their knowledge and feelings around deepfake and voice clone technology. Amit Gupta, Pindrop’s VP of Product, Research & Engineering and Bret Kinsella, Voicebot.ai’s Founder and CEO sat down in a webinar to discuss the key findings in the report.
Below you’ll find answers to burning questions around consumer deepfake and voice clone sentiment.
1 – Where are consumers learning about deepfakes?
Unsurprisingly, social media is leading the charge with channels like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook — to name a few. Then, it is followed by movies, documentaries, and the news media, where these technologies are used and covered when relevant headlines pop up. Awareness of deepfakes across these channels was slightly higher than voice clones.
2 – What do consumers like about deepfakes and voice clones?
Consumers have a positive sentiment around deepfakes and voice clones because, in some cases, they’re funny and entertaining. In video games, deepfakes are seen to improve realism and add creativity. But 90% of the population had some sort of concern around the technology.
3 – Is sentiment more positive or more negative about deepfakes and voice clones?
The report showed that many skewed either more positive or negative, like an inverted bell curve. It’s the inverse of a normal distribution. The highest number for deepfakes was extremely positive and negative (22.3% each, respectively), with fewer people in the neutral middle (11.8%). Voice clones looked slightly more pessimistic, with 21.6% in the extremely negative category and only 18.8% in the extremely positive category, perhaps because awareness is slightly lower.
4 – What are some examples of deepfakes or voice clones that consumers like?
Very famously on America’s Got Talent, one of the contestants used a Simon Cowell face swap. For the new Indiana Jones movie, filmmakers used AI to make the lead actor look 20 years younger. Lastly, in the Andy Warhol Diaries, the creators used a voice clone to copy Andy’s voice and read the journal aloud. These examples make it much easier to comprehend that 38% percent of the consumers surveyed in the study have more positive feelings about these use cases.
5 – How does consumer sentiment vary by industry?
Two-thirds of those surveyed knew about voice clones taking place in the banking industry. Voice clone awareness was also high in the politics and government and media industries. Consumers also feel that many industries such as banking, insurance, and healthcare are not doing enough to protect against the risks of deepfake technology.
6 – What other factors weighed into consumer concern?
Awareness of deepfakes and voice clones declines with age, with those over 60 dropping in awareness quite dramatically. Concern around deepfakes and voice clones rises with income. The report also showed that consumers were very interested in voice authentication as a tool to protect against larger deepfake threats.
7 – How will AI help consumers and businesses detect deepfakes and voice clones in the future?
Deepfake and liveness detection is becoming more important as generative AI evolves. Liveness detection helps businesses and consumers have high confidence in knowing that who they’re speaking to is a real, live person. Learn more about the benefits of biometric liveness detection and how it prevents fraud here.
In conclusion
As AI technology evolves, so will fraudsters’ ability to leverage deepfakes and voice clones for dangerous tactics, including spreading misinformation and attempting fraud. Businesses can enhance their call center security and protect their consumers with a robust security strategy, including multi-factor authentication, advanced identity verification and real-time liveness detection.
Interested in watching the full webinar discussing the report’s findings? View it on-demand here. Or request a demo of Pindrop’s liveness detection.
