Modern AI-generated tools capable of imitating real human voices are both impressive and worrying. From phishing scams to election meddling, any application that is entertaining or useful has at least one that is malicious. Now, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken notice, too, and taken action for the first time. Earlier this week, the committee began accepting registrations for the Voice Cloning Challenge, BleepingComputer reported.

The government agency hopes to gain some useful ideas to address the issue of fraudulent or unauthorized use of AI-based voice cloning systems. Entrants can make suggestions for at least one of the following intervention points:

Prevention or authentication: A method must be provided to restrict the use or application of voice cloning software by unauthorized users;

Real-time detection or monitoring: Methods must be provided to detect cloned voices or the use of voice cloning technology; or

Post-use evaluation: A method must be provided to check whether an audio clip contains cloned speech.

According to the rules, all submitted proposals must include a brief text description of the proposed proposal and a detailed written description.

Challenge judges will evaluate proposals in three main areas: manageability and execution feasibility; enhanced corporate responsibility and reduced consumer burden; and resilience. This means that the proposed solutions should be relatively easy to put into practice and as future-proof as possible, taking into account the practical options available to developers of AI tools.

The overall winner of the competition will receive a bonus of US$25,000, and the runner-up will receive a bonus of US$4,000. Up to three honorable mentions (one per intervention site) will receive $2,000 each.

Still, the FTC says no results are a result -- albeit a worrisome one. If no viable ideas emerge, it means the technical challenges are more difficult than expected and should trigger necessary legislative changes to develop policies for the use of such AI tools.

The open competition will last until January 12, and the results will be announced "early 2024".

learn more:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/contests/ftc-voice-cloning-challenge