Partner Webcast: You Don't Say: An FTC Workshop on Voice Cloning Technologies

Partner Webcast: You Don't Say: An FTC Workshop on Voice Cloning Technologies

On January 28, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will examine voice cloning technologies that enable users to make near-perfect reproductions of a real person’s voice. Advances in artificial intelligence and text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis have allowed researchers to create a near-perfect voice clone with less than a five second recording of a person’s voice.

There are a number of promising uses for this technology, such as editing the work of voice actors and enabling people with tracheotomies and other conditions to use TTS systems using voices derived from their previously-recorded audio samples. However, it also has the potential to cause substantial harm when used maliciously.

For instance, many consumers already fall prey to “grandparent scams” (where an elderly person receives a phone call supposedly from a grandchild in distress who needs cash) and phishing scams (where an employee is contacted by a superior and directed to immediately wire funds to a vendor). Voice cloning may make it harder for consumers to identify these sorts of social engineering scams.

Join the FTC as they discuss how these voice cloning technologies are developed and deployed, from healthcare and consumer-oriented applications, to fraudulent schemes.

• Date: Tuesday, January 28, 2020
• Time: 12:30 p.m. ET
• Webcast Link: To access the live webcast, visit FTC’s event page.