A new Chrome extension can reliably detect AI-generated voices

Just in time for the 2024 US elections, the call screening and fraud detection company Hiya has launched a free Chrome extension to spot deepfake voices. The aptly named Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector “listens” to voices played in video or audio streams and assigns an authenticity score, telling you whether it’s likely real or fake.

Hiya tells Engadget that third-party testers have validated the extension as over 99 percent accurate. The company says that even covers AI-generated voices the detection model hasn’t trained on, and the company claims it can spot voices created by new synthesis models as soon as they’re launched.

We played around with the extension ahead of launch, and it seems to work well. I pulled up a YouTube video about the blues pioneer Howlin’ Wolf that I suspected used AI narration, and it assigned it a 1/100 authenticity score, declaring it likely a deepfake. Suspicions confirmed.

Hiya threw a well-earned jab at social media companies for making such a tool necessary. “It’s clear social media sites have a huge responsibility to alert users when the content they are consuming has a high chance of being an AI deepfake,” Hiya President Kush Parikh wrote in a press release. “The onus is currently on the individual to be vigilant to the risks and use tools like our Deepfake Voice Detector to check if they are concerned content is being altered. That’s a big ask, so we’re pleased to be able to support them with a solution that helps put some of the power back in their hands.”

The extension only needs to listen to a few seconds of a voice to spit out a result. It works on a credit system to prevent Hiya’s servers from getting slammed by excessive requests. You’ll get 20 credits daily, which may or may not cover the flood of manipulative AI content you’ll come across on social media in the coming weeks.