As Nigeria approaches the 2023 Presidential elections, a disturbing new trend has emerged in the political sphere. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) to clone the voices of political figures and disseminate false information to the electorate has become a cause for concern.
The latest example of this involves former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his running mate Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, whose voices have been cloned using sophisticated AI technology. The goal is to create audio recordings that sound like the real individuals and use them to sway public opinion.
Recently, a viral audio recording has been circulating on social media purporting to be Atiku Abubakar making comments about about the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). However, MandyNews.com have now investigated and debunk the recording, pointing out irregularities that prove it is a fake, generated using sophisticated AI software that can mimic the sound and intonation of any human voice.
Here are some of the AI tools that have been used to clone the voices of Atiku Abubakar and Ifeanyi Okowa:
- Respeecher: An online service that can clone voices in just a few minutes. It uses AI algorithms to analyze and synthesize speech, producing a clone that is almost indistinguishable from the original speaker.
- Lyrebird: Another online service that uses deep learning algorithms to clone voices. Lyrebird can create a digital voice clone with just one minute of audio data.
- Resemble.ai: An AI voice cloning platform that can create realistic voice clones in just a few hours. It can be used to create voice-overs for videos, virtual assistants, and chatbots.
- Baidu Deep Voice: A set of neural TTS (text-to-speech) models developed by Baidu Research. These models can synthesize speech in multiple languages and voices.
- Google DeepMind WaveNet: A neural network-based generative model for speech synthesis. WaveNet can produce highly realistic and natural-sounding speech.
These are just a few of the AI tools that are currently available for voice cloning. As the technology advances, it becomes easier for anyone with basic technical skills to clone someone’s voice and create a fake audio recording. This poses a significant threat to the integrity of elections and democracy as a whole.
In Nigeria, there is growing concern about the use of AI-generated fake audio recordings to influence the outcome of the 2023 presidential elections. While there is no evidence to suggest that political parties or candidates are directly involved in these campaigns, it is clear that some individuals are using these tactics to spread disinformation and sow discord.
Fortunately, there are ways to detect fake audio recordings generated using AI tools. Experts can analyze the waveform and frequency of the voice to reveal anomalies that are characteristic of AI-generated speech. It is important for technology experts, law enforcement authorities, and the general public to be aware of these tactics and take steps to prevent them from being used to influence the outcome of elections.