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An AI startup uses voice authentication to fight deepfake fraud

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An AI startup uses voice authentication to fight deepfake fraud

With the advent of widely available generative AI, scammers are more likely to use deepfakes—voice imitations created with the intention of misleading—to trick victims into disclosing personal information.

Pindrop is a voice authentication startup that says it has the technology and know-how to authenticate users and change users’ content to AI-generated content. The CEO of Pindrop, Vijay Balasubramaniyan, testified before Congress on Wednesday regarding the dangers of deepfakes and the measures Congress should take to prevent them. Balasubramaniyan underlined the immediate negative effects of deepfakes, while many of the panelists concentrated on “superintelligence” or political disinformation.

The Washington Examiner was informed by Balasubramaniyan that “fundamentally, the point was that deepfakes break commerce because businesses can’t trust who’s on the other end.” Is it a machine or a person? Deepfakes distort information because it’s impossible to determine if something was said by Sen. [Chuck] Schumer or by Tom Hanks promoting dental plans. And then deepfakes destroy all contact because, as a grandmother, I have no idea who to trust if I don’t know if it’s my grandkids.”

Balasubramaniyan, Ahamad Mustaque, and Paul Judge founded Pindrop in 2015 with the goal of turning the CEO’s 2011 Ph.D. thesis into a workable product. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, Balasubramaniyan finished his graduate studies with an emphasis on finding characteristics in voice calls that could be used to confirm a user’s identity. The CEO found a number of auditory traits that can be used to create a voice “fingerprint” that can determine its authenticity. It can detect, for instance, whether a call is coming from a specific user’s phone or distinguish between aspects of the sound that are unique to the “shape of your entire vocal tract,” according to the CEO.

Although the startup is still in its early stages, the company said that it has partnerships with a number of large tech companies, such as Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services. Although Pindrop would not disclose its user count, it states that it collaborates with eight of the top ten banks and credit unions, fourteen of the top twenty insurers, and three of the top five brokerages in the US. According to a spokesperson who spoke with the Washington Examiner, Pindrop’s software has also examined over 5.3 billion calls and stopped $2.3 billion in fraud losses.

Although Pindrop is exclusively utilized by for-profit businesses, Balasubramaniyan claimed to have discussed the government’s potential use of its services with multiple Congressmen.

Because AI is a rapidly evolving field, it can be challenging for AI “fact-checkers” to stay current. According to Pindrop, it’s held up pretty well. Microsoft claimed that Pindrop could identify the software 99% of the time when it released the VALL-E large language model.

Fraud based on deepfakes has long been an issue. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on AI and Human Rights over the summer, during which the technology was discussed in front of Congress. In front of the committee, Jennifer Destefano recounted how con artists almost conned her out of $50,000 by using an artificial intelligence (AI) voice clone of her daughter.

Destefano told Congress, “It wasn’t just her voice, it was her cries, it was her sobs.” When her husband assured her that their daughter was safe and with him, the mother almost gave in to the call.

Deepfakes have been directed specifically at seniors. Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) alerted the Federal Trade Commission in May about the use of chatbots and voice clones by con artists to deceive senior citizens into believing they are speaking with a close friend or relative. “In one case, a scammer used this approach to convince an older couple that the scammer was their grandson in desperate need of money to make bail, and the couple almost lost $9,400 before a bank official alerted them to the potential fraud,” the letter stated.

According to a survey conducted by the ID verification service Regula, 37% of worldwide businesses said that they have experienced attempts to access their websites using phony voices. Businesses have also reported being targeted by fake voices.

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Apple’s own 5G modem-equipped iPhone SE 4 is “confirmed” to launch in March

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Tom O’Malley, an analyst at Barclays, recently visited Asia with his colleagues to speak with suppliers and makers of electronics. The analysts said they had “confirmed” that a fourth-generation iPhone SE with an Apple-designed 5G modem is scheduled to launch near the end of the first quarter next year in a research note they released this week that outlines the main conclusions from the trip. That timeline implies that the next iPhone SE will be unveiled in March, similar to when the present model was unveiled in 2022, in keeping with earlier rumors.

The rumored features of the fourth-generation iPhone SE include a 6.1-inch OLED display, Face ID, a newer A-series chip, a USB-C port, a single 48-megapixel rear camera, 8GB of RAM to enable Apple Intelligence support, and the previously mentioned Apple-designed 5G modem. The SE is anticipated to have a similar design to the base iPhone 14.

Since 2018, Apple is said to have been developing its own 5G modem for iPhones, a move that will let it lessen and eventually do away with its reliance on Qualcomm. With Qualcomm’s 5G modem supply arrangement for iPhone launches extended through 2026 earlier this year, Apple still has plenty of time to finish switching to its own modem. In addition to the fourth-generation iPhone SE, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo earlier stated that the so-called “iPhone 17 Air” would come with a 5G modem that was created by Apple.

Whether Apple’s initial 5G modem would offer any advantages to consumers over Qualcomm’s modems, such quicker speeds, is uncertain.

Qualcomm was sued by Apple in 2017 for anticompetitive behavior and $1 billion in unpaid royalties. In 2019, Apple purchased the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem business after the two firms reached a settlement in the dispute. Apple was able to support its development by acquiring a portfolio of patents relating to cellular technology. It appears that we will eventually be able to enjoy the results of our effort in four more months.

On March 8, 2022, Apple made the announcement of the third-generation iPhone SE online. With antiquated features like a Touch ID button, a Lightning port, and large bezels surrounding the screen, the handset resembles the iPhone 8. The iPhone SE presently retails for $429 in the United States, but the new model may see a price increase of at least a little.

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Google is said to be discontinuing the Pixel Tablet 2 and may be leaving the market once more

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Google terminated the development of the Pixel Tablet 3 yesterday, according to Android Headlines, even before a second-generation model was announced. The second-generation Pixel Tablet has actually been canceled, according to the report. This means that the gadget that was released last year will likely be a one-off, and Google is abandoning the tablet market for the second time in just over five years.

If accurate, the report indicates that Google has determined that it is not worth investing more money in a follow-up because of the dismal sales of the Pixel Tablet. Rumors of a keyboard accessory and more functionality for the now-defunct project surfaced as recently as last week.

It’s important to keep in mind that Google’s Nest subsidiary may abandon its plans for large-screen products in favor of developing technologies like the Nest Hub and Hub Max rather than standalone tablets.

Google has always had difficulty making a significant impact in the tablet market and creating a competitor that can match Apple’s iPad in terms of sales and general performance, not helped in the least by its inconsistent approach. Even though the hardware was good, it never really fought back after getting off to a promising start with the Nexus 7 eons ago. Another problem that has hampered Google’s efforts is that Android significantly trails iPadOS in terms of the quantity of third-party apps that are tablet-optimized.

After the Pixel Slate received tremendously unfavorable reviews, the firm first declared that it was finished producing tablets in 2019. Two tablets that were still in development at the time were discarded.

By 2022, however, Google had altered its mind and declared that a tablet was being developed by its Pixel hardware team. The $499 Pixel Tablet was the final version of the gadget, which came with a speaker dock that the tablet could magnetically connect to. (Google would subsequently charge $399 for the tablet alone.)

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Windows 11 PCs with Arm Processors now have an Official ISO for Clean Installations

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Power users occasionally prefer to start over when they acquire a new computer, so they follow the pro-gamers’ advice and reinstall Windows using a brand-new ISO image that comes straight from Microsoft and is free of bloatware and needlessly complex “driver management programs.” Up until recently, the new Snapdragon laptops’ more specialized version of Windows 11 didn’t support that.

The Windows 11 build on these new laptops is unusual because of the Arm64-based hardware, which differs from the typical x86 and x64 innards found in most laptops and desktops. Microsoft has finally released a disk image (or ISO file) for these devices after several months of waiting. To perform a direct reinstallation or make a bootable flash drive for a different device, you may now download it straight from Microsoft’s website. It is identical to the installation media utility that is currently available.

Be aware that there may be some glitches if you use this method for a fresh install. Compared to previous designs, the Snapdragon X system-on-a-chip has a lot fewer hardware variables, but because it’s so new, Windows Update might not include all the necessary components. You may need to use an Ethernet connection or the old-fashioned sneakernet to manually load drivers from another computer. You may also need to do some Googling to locate all the files you require for that.

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