WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission has introduced what it is calling the “Voice Cloning Challenge” as it works to develop strategies to protect consumers from the misuse of artificial intelligence-enabled voice cloning for fraud and other harms.
The FTC said it will accept Challenge submissions online from Jan. 2 to Jan. 12, 2024. Information on how to submit a proposal for the challenge as well as complete challenge rules can be found on the challenge website.
The challenge will offer $25,000 to the winner.
"We will use every tool to prevent harm to the public stemming from abuses of voice cloning technology,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “We want to address harms before they hit the marketplace, and enforce the law when they do.”
Plusses & Minuses
Noting voice cloning technology has grown more sophisticated as text-to-speech AI technology has improved, the FTC said the technology holds promise for consumers, such as medical assistance for those who may have lost their voices due to accident or illness.
But the agency is also flagging concerns about ways that voice cloning technology could be used to harm consumers. For example, it could make it easier for scammers to impersonate family, friends, or business executives; it could also enable fraudsters to deceive consumers by appropriating the voices of creative professionals.
Earlier this year, the FTC warned consumers about the use of voice cloning to impersonate others to try to get consumers to give scammers money or personal information. And the FTC held a workshop in early 2020 that examined various issues related to voice cloning technology,” the FTC said.
What’s Required
The FTC said ideas submitted to the Challenge must address at least one of these intervention points:
- Prevention or authentication. It must provide a way to limit the use or application of voice cloning software by unauthorized users
- Real-time detection or monitoring. It must provide a way todetect cloned voices or the use of voice cloning technology
- Post-use evaluation. It must provide a way to check if an audio clip contains cloned voices
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