How to not get fooled by AI audio deepfakes

This week:?Donald Trump misconstrues relationship between migrants, Social Security … Trump’s “bloodbath” comment sets off context controversy … Exaggerated warnings about the solar eclipse … Gruesome, unfounded claims about Haitians amid crisis … That Trump-with-a-crowd photo is fake

We tested 4 tools meant to detect audio deepfakes. The results were not pretty.

The most recent major drama for deepfakes in the presidential election came in January, when thousands of New Hampshire voters received a robocall made to sound like President Joe Biden on the eve of the state’s primary election. Using Biden’s voice, the call urged voters to stay home and not write in Biden’s name.?

That’s the opposite of what the Biden campaign wanted. Biden’s voice was faked with artificial intelligence.?

The scariest part? It took a New Orleans street magician only 20 minutes and $1 to create, Staff Writer Loreben Tuquero reports.

Audio deepfakes are easier and cheaper to make than their photo and video counterparts. They’re also pretty convincing, lacking the visual cues of manipulated imagery.?

What’s worse, the technology to detect audio manipulated by AI is far behind the technology that is available to create it.

Loreben tested four free online tools that claim to determine whether an audio clip is AI-generated. The results were discouraging; only one of them found the Biden-like robocall was likely AI-generated.?

"Detecting audio deepfakes is an active research area, meaning that it is currently treated as an unsolved problem," said Jennifer Williams, a University of Southampton lecturer who specializes in audio AI safety.

There are many reasons the potential for audio deepfake mischief in this election keeps fact-checkers up at night. But it’s not all bad news. While we wait for the technology to improve, you can protect yourself from falling for audio misinformation by following basic techniques.

Urgent requests for personal information.?Treat calls requesting money, personal information, passwords, bank codes or two factor authentication codes with the utmost caution. Do not give this information out over the phone.?

"Urgency is a key giveaway," said V.S. Subrahmanian, a Northwestern University computer science professor. "Scammers want you (to) do things immediately, before you have time to consult others or think more deeply about a request. Don't fall for it."

Inconsistent breathing. Experts said people should watch for irregular or absent breathing noises, intentional pauses and intonations, along with inconsistent room acoustics.??

Cross-check the claims. Seek to verify the audio’s sources.

"Be skeptical of unsolicited audio messages or recordings, especially those claiming to be from authority figures, celebrities, or people you know,” said Manjeet Rege, director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence at the University of St. Thomas.?

Use common sense. Ask who or where the call came from and whether it is supported by independent and unrelated sources.

In an interview with Scientific American, Hany Farid, a University of California, Berkeley, computer science professor, stressed provenance — or basic, trustworthy facts about a piece’s origins — when analyzing audio recordings: "Where was it recorded? When was it recorded? Who recorded it? Who leaked it to the site that originally posted it?"

Ask for backup. When a sketchy call touches on a legal or financial matter, insist on verifying identities through other secure channels beyond audio or voice.

"Healthy skepticism is warranted given how realistic this emerging technology has become," Rege said.

I encourage you to read Loreben’s findings in full. Then, head to our Instagram account to test your ability to detect real audio from the fake!

Further reading: Social media accounts use AI-generated audio to push 2024 election misinformation

Fact-checks of the week

• “Bloodbath” back and forth. President Joe Biden’s campaign shared clips of former President Donald Trump saying, "If I don't get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the whole, that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country, that'll be the least of it." The Biden campaign framed it as violent rhetoric from a candidate who has long pushed the boundaries of political speech. But Trump, who was speaking at a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, said he was talking about an economic bloodbath for the auto industry if he doesn’t win; he was talking about tariffs on Chinese imports before and after the comment. We provided what Trump said about the “bloodbath” and how he called imprisoned Jan. 6 defendants “hostages” so voters can make up their own minds.?
• Trump misses on Social Security risks. During the same Ohio rally, Donald Trump said of immigrants, "Your Social Security will be destroyed by the people coming in. There's too many of them. It's not sustainable." Trump is wrong about the relationship between immigrants and Social Security. Social Security’s fiscal challenges stem from a shortage of workers compared with beneficiaries. Though immigration alone won’t make the program solvent, it would increase the worker-to-beneficiary ratio, potentially for decades, thus extending the program’s fiscal life.

Cannibalism in Haiti? Fact-checking the unfounded claims

Violence escalated in Haiti after a coalition of gangs began attacking Haiti’s capital, Port-Au-Prince, forcing acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign.?

Amid the real images of chaos lurks a gruesome, unfounded narrative about a culture of cannibalism in Haiti.?

The Daily Star, a British tabloid, helped kick-start the panic with a March 5 story that said Haitian "cannibal gangs" are "eating people they've killed," citing an anonymous Haitian journalist.

Conservatives with verified accounts and large platforms, including X owner Elon Musk, amplified the unverified claims on social media and warned of an "invasion" of Haitian cannibals in the U.S.

The online rumors coincide with former President Donald Trump comparing migrants to Hannibal Lecter, the serial killer and cannibal character in "The Silence of the Lambs," during presidential campaign rallies.

These posts, however, do not offer evidence that Haitians in the country, or Haitians seeking asylum in the U.S., are practicing cannibalism. The videos Musk and others have shared include outdated videos that couldn’t be verified or were taken in other countries.?

The State Department told PolitiFact that it has received no credible reports about cannibalism in Haiti, and experts who study the country said they’ve seen no sign that cannibalism is prevalent among gangs or the population at large.

Keep reading the story to learn how we fact-checked the videos and what we learned from experts about historical context for these claims.??

— Maria Ramírez Uribe and Samantha Putterman?

Quick links to more fact-checks & reports

• Officials in states and towns along the eclipse’s path of totality are encouraging residents to prepare for large crowds. Some social media users have shared the guidance for the April 8 event without critical context.
• Conservative news outlets falsely claimed the Jan. 6 select committee "suppressed testimony" from a former Trump White House official. The transcribed interview was under the Department of Homeland Security’s review — and doesn’t prove Trump called for 10,000 National Guard troops.
• Four years later, people’s lives are largely free of the extreme public health measures that restricted them early in the pandemic. But misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines persists.
• Thirteen states are weighing abortion-related ballot measures, most of which would protect abortion rights, reports KFF Health News.
• A viral Facebook post shared a list of 65 activities that require "valid IDs," including driving a car and buying alcohol or cigarettes, while the only thing that doesn’t require a valid ID is "voting." This is Mostly False; in most states, voters must verify their identity in some way at the polls.

Do you smell smoke??

Here's your Pants on Fire fact-check of the week:?An image of Donald Trump walking on a flag-lined street in New York was AI-generated.

See what else we've rated Pants on Fire this week.

Have questions or ideas for our coverage? Send me an email at [email protected].

Thanks for reading!

Katie Sanders

PolitiFact Editor-in-Chief