Alarming Report Shows AI-Powered Voice Cloning Companies Don’t Have Enough Safeguards to Stop Fraud

Several AI voice cloning platforms are not implementing the right safeguards against fraud, an alarming report highlighted.

Consumer Reports reveals that companies creating GenAI-based tools for voice cloning are not taking the right measures to stop scammers. As a result, they are defrauding clients, the report warned.

The study also shared how four out of six firms failed to provide the right services to build high barriers to stop people’s voices from getting cloned incorrectly. The report tested this voice cloning feature for Lovo, ElevenLabs, Speechify, and PlayHT, amongst others.

The report showed how easy it was to produce voice clones through audio available publicly using tools from these companies. All you needed to do was tick a check box which users had legal rights to produce voice clones. Two companies did have the right checklists in place, including restricted uploads of pre-recorded audio. These include Descript and Resemble AI.

Descript made sure users read the whole consent statement that was designed as a base to clone voices. As per Resemble AI, people had to carry out voice recording in real time to produce the highest quality for the clone. Attempts to produce the clone were limited to pre-recorded audio that were of low standards.

Still, the testers could easily bypass safeguards which brought to light the need for better safety policies. This includes calling upon the industry to set the right norm and standard to reduce risks of fraud.

GenAI tools ensured voice cloning was the right possibility and it was being used a lot for fraud. Scammers utilize all tools as the highest form of social engineering. They design audio of loved ones or friends in difficult situations and deceive others to get funds or attain sensitive details.

The tech can easily get access to bank details by bypassing voice ID verification too. As a result, the FBI was able to issue alerts about various voice cloning and video cloning schemes. This is used for all types of financial frauds. As per one bank based in the UK, Starling recommends using phrases to prove that the person on the other end is not actually a clone. They can also ensure greater safety by limiting access to social media apps.

Some companies like Synthesis produce life-like content by using video cloning and voice cloning of actual humans that saves on the costs linked to hiring production teams. Synthesis also has its own policy to stop AI abuse. It restricts any kind of cloning that’s non-consensual by adding biometric checks. So if the person putting out a request matches the person in the content, then only is it approved.

So as you can see, the company is using content moderation to the point of creating media depending on what policies are present to stop creating harmful content. Now the question is why others are not doing the same when the risk is so high.

Question	Eleven Labs	Speechify	LOVO	PlayHT	Descript	Resemble AI
What customer information is required before you can create a custom voice clone?	First name, email address, credit card information	Email	Name, email	Name, email	Name, email	Name, email, payment information
How much does it cost to create a custom voice clone?	$5	$0	$0	$0	$0	$1
Are there technological barriers to frustrate non-consensual cloning?	No; users presented with a checkbox to confirm they will abide by terms of service	No; users enter full name after a self-certifying statement confirming they abide by the company's terms	No; users presented with a checkbox to confirm they will abide by the company’s terms	No; users presented with a checkbox to confirm they will abide by the company’s terms	Yes; users must record or upload audio of an authorization statement that also trains the clone	For the first voice clone, any audio works; for each subsequent voice clone, a consent statement must be recorded or uploaded
Does the privacy policy give the company permission to use customer voices to train or improve its model?	Yes, with opt-out	Yes, without offering an opt-out	No	Unclear	Yes; no opt-out of voice model use for training, but projects can be opted out	Yes, without offering an opt-out
Does the privacy policy permit the company to allow other customers or companies to use your voice model or data?	Yes, if you opt in. Those who opt in are compensated.	Yes, with user’s consent	No	Unclear; company can do anything with consent and for legitimate business interests	Yes, with user’s consent	No
Does the privacy policy grant users the right to delete all their voice data and other personal data?	Yes, though possibly only in jurisdictions that offer data deletion rights	Yes, though the company retains some data for “legitimate” business interests	Yes, with minor exceptions	Yes, with minor exceptions	Yes, though the company retains some data for “legitimate” business interests	Yes, though the company retains some data for “legitimate” business interests

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

AI Therapy Study Finds ChatGPT More Effective Than Humans, But Experts Warn of Risks and Guidelines

According to a new study published in PLOS Mental Health, ChatGPT is way better at couple therapy than most human therapists. 830 participants were randomly assigned a human professional therapist and a ChatGPT model and were asked to compare human therapists with ChatGPT. The researchers asked participants to rate the quality of therapy they received based on five criteria: how much the counselor understood the speaker, whether the advice given by the counselor was fitting, how empathetic the counselor was, whether their suggestions aligned with something they would expect a good therapist to say and whether the counselor showed cultural sensitivity.

The researchers thought that participants wouldn’t be able to tell a human response apart from an AI generated one. Participants correctly guessed a human response 56.1% of the time and guessed ChatGPT's response 51.2% of the time. This was important to know because it showed that results of the study weren’t impacted by what the participants thought the responses came from. But participants rated the responses from human therapists higher than those from ChatGPT.

When the researchers gathered the ratings for the results, they found that responses from ChatGPT got the highest ratings because most participants thought they were from human therapists. The responses from human therapists got the lowest ratings because the participants thought they were from ChatGPT. All in all, the responses from ChatGPT received the highest ratings from the participants because they felt more culturally sensitive and felt a connection with them.

The researchers speculated that the main reason why ChatGPT is better than human therapists is that it uses more nouns and adjectives in its responses while human therapists try to be curt. As ChatGPT can contextualize better, this led to the participants rating its responses higher.

Even though using ChatGPT for therapy showed good results, the researchers suggest that completely relying on it is risky if it is not under controlled settings. AI therapy can become a commercial product soon because many people seek life advice on ChatGPT and Claude but it should all happen under proper guidelines. AI is also being used for diagnosing patients with a 90% success rate, while there is a 74% diagnosis success rate for doctors who are using AI chatbots for diagnosing.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Marketers Eager for AI Search Opportunities but Struggling with Privacy, Innovation, and Strategy Adaptations

The new survey by Botify partnered up with Centiment and surveyed 300 marketing department leaders in the US to know what they think about AI search in marketing. The results showed that many marketers are embracing AI search and many are also preparing for the future. 94% of the marketing leaders said that they are somewhat prepared to optimize their brands according to AI search, with 42% saying that they are very prepared. 6% of the marketing leaders surveyed said that they are not prepared for the AI revolution in search.

Marketing leaders were also asked which platforms they consider search engines apart from Google, and most answered with YouTube (66%). Other responses were ChatGPT (56%), Amazon (44%), TikTok (40%) and Meta (40%). When it comes to ChatGPT search, 74% are excited about the new marketing opportunities it will bring. 62% of the marketing leaders said that they are diversifying and adjusting their marketing strategies according to the change in search landscape. 30% reported starting diversifying their marketing strategies but have no intention for adjustments.

54% of the respondents said that they want to know if Perplexity's AI shopping assistant will redefine the interactions with customers, with 35% being confident that it will enhance the customer journey. But there are also some concerns when it comes to the implementation of AI in marketing. Some of these concerns shared by the respondents are data privacy (55%), needing to understand how platforms work (55%) and not being able to keep up with the pace of innovation (49%). 16% also said that they are concerned about upskilling their SEO teams because they need to understand different things like crawler bots, controlling AI and bot behavior, AI technology expertise, and resourcing automation tools.

54% of the respondents also said that they saw a significant change in how they measure search performance because of consumers using generative AI, while 35% reported only seeing slight changes. 56% said that they want to learn more about the advantages of AI over traditional search engines, 52% want to learn about AI’s impact on customer acquisition, and 46% want to know about how to measure the impact of AI and what are its implementation requirements.

53% of the marketing leaders said that they know that AI assistants like Perplexity AI and OpenAI crawl their websites and they monitor them on an ongoing basis. 32% said they know about AI crawlers but they do not monitor them on an ongoing basis. 40% said they know the exact percentage of website traffic that comes from bots while 50% reported having a general idea. 52% said that they now measure their website presence in AI featured snippets as well and not just through rankings.

Take a look at the charts below for more insights:

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Chicago Ranks Worst for Mean Bosses, Food Industry Scores Highest in Workplace Rudeness

Preply, a language training and corporate language training provider, conducted a study to find out which cities in America have the meanest bosses with mean language habits. They prepared a mean boss score from 0 to 100 and awarded the scores according to how harsh bosses are in different cities in the US. Chicago was awarded the city with the meanest bosses with a 97.09 score. Many of the residents of Chicago plan to leave their jobs so they don't have to get belittled and berated by their bosses.

Chicago is followed by Virginia Beach (92.85) and Las Vegas (92.62) as cities where bosses use a lot of harsh languages with their workers. Employees in Virginia Beach say that their bosses have raised their voices at them to the point of yelling, and most of it happens via phone. 2 in 5 workers in Las Vegas have said that their bosses humiliate them in front of others, while 1 in 4 workers describe their job as toxic. On the other hand, Wichita is described as the city with the kindest bosses. 1 in 2 workers in Wichita say that their bosses have never raised their voices at them. It is followed by Omaha and Philadelphia, and the cities with the nicest bosses.

The top industry with the meanest bosses is Food services, with a score of 99.47. It is followed by construction (90.48), manufacturing (70.96) and retail (68.89) industries. The study also found that people who are making less than $45,000 are more likely to experience a rude manager or boss. 1 in 9 Americans say that their bosses are frequently rude to them, with Gen-Z experiencing the most rudeness.

• Also read: How to spot (and deal with) the 7 types of toxic bosses

37.15% of workers in America said that their bosses are too blunt, while 26.29% find their bosses to be too critical. Workers also describe their bosses as sarcastic (25.58%), aggressive (14.92%), and demeaning (12.33%). 1 in 4 workers in America are planning to quit their jobs to get away from mean bosses.

Take a look at the infographics below for more insights: 

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Google's AI Overviews Impact Clickthrough Rates, Decreasing Desktop CTR for Informational Queries in Q4 2024

According to a new study by Advanced Web Ranking, AI Overviews appear in 42.51% search results in Q4 2024, which is an increase of 8.83% from the prior quarter. This means that clickthrough-rate on informational queries dropped a lot. Websites which appeared in the top four positions for searches with what, where, how and when saw a 7.31% decrease in desktop clickthrough rates. The author of the study, Dan Popa, says that AI Overviews are impacting organic clicks a lot because AI-generated summaries are dominating informational queries.

The study also talked about how success in SEO varies industry by industry, like websites related to law and politics saw a 38.45% CTR while websites related to science saw a 19.06% CTR within the same rankings. There was a 7.39% increase in CTR on law and politics sites, while a 6% CTR increase on education sites. There was a decline of 6.03% CTR on science-related while 1.39% CTR dropped on shopping sites on desktop and 1.96% on mobile.

This report talked about different patterns on mobile and desktop. Even though there was a decline in CTR for informational sites on desktop, it increased 1.81% on mobile. Similarly, there was a 2.28% increase of CTR on mobile for arts and entertainment, while a 1.01% drop in CTR on desktop sites. Queries with single words got a 2% increase in CRT on mobile while queries with four or more Keyes saw a CTR decline on desktop.

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Gen-Z and Millennials Under Siege: Stress and Burnout Skyrocket to Unprecedented Levels!

A Talker Research survey of 2,000 adults examined how stress has built up over the past decade. It found that the average person experiences the highest level of burnout around the age of 42. This is because of too much stress culminating in the past few years, and Gen-Z and millennials are the most affected by it. For Gen Z and millennial adults, aged 18 to 44, the peak of their stress is happening even earlier, at an average of 25 years old. 42% of the respondents said that they have reached more than half of their stress capacity, while 51% of Gen-Z and 37% of millennials are getting heavily influenced by stress.

When respondents were asked what is the main cause of their burnout, 30% named finances as their top factor. Other reasons of respondents feeling burnout were work (25%), politics (26%) and physical health (23%). Some of the respondents also said that they are stressed out because of their relationships, with 18% each naming their family or love life as the cause of their burnout.

A licensed clinical psychologist, Ehab Youssef, said that stress doesn't look the same for everyone, but many younger Americans are at the peak of their stress levels earlier than most people. He added that he has never seen people in their 20s so stressed before, and whenever we ask them why they are stressed, their finances, relationships, careers, and social media expectations are the top answers.

When younger generations were asked what makes the content, 33% answered with work. 27% also said finances and 24% said mental health are the main reasons for contention. Gen-X, Baby Boomers and others belonging to the silent generation said that politics (27%) and physical health (24%) are most concerning for them. Gen-Z and millennials reported not worrying about their love life and social life that much, with only 14% and 12% worrying about them respectively. Most of the participants of the survey said that they feel that 2025 is going to be the most stressful year for them, while 42% anticipate it to be a good and hopeful year. 83% of the respondents said that being an adult is more challenging now than it was ten years ago, while 72% said that the next 10 years are going to be more challenging for adults.

As stress levels rise, experts provide practical advice for each generation. Gen Z and millennials should focus on digital detoxes, improving financial literacy, and building real-life connections. A balanced nutritional diet is also crucial for managing stress. For Gen X and baby boomers, adopting mindfulness, setting boundaries, and staying proactive with health screenings can help alleviate pressure. Across all ages, prioritizing mental health and strengthening support networks remain essential.

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TikTok’s Ad Empire Faces Collapse — $12B at Stake as US Uncertainty Grows!

According to a research by WARC media, TikTok’s advertising revenue is about to reach $32.4 billion this year, which will mark its 24.5% YoY growth. The largest market for TikTok’s advertising revenue is the US, but the uncertainty about the future of TikTok in the region has contributed to the decline in the share of its ad revenue. In 2022, TikTok had 43.3% share in ad revenue in the US but now it is set to decline to 34.0% by 2026. If TikTok gets banned in the US, it will mean a loss of $11.8 billion in ad spend.

The research by WARC media also talked about how much time is being spent by users on TikTok. It showed that users are spending 35 hours per month on TikTok, and it is way more than usage on Meta's Instagram. TikTok ads are also generated 4.2x return on ad spend when Amazon sales impact is included. TikTok ban in the US can make the app replaced by YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat in the digital ad market. Nearly $12 billion is going to be at risk with the TikTok ban and many brands are uncertain about their future on the platform.

TikTok is one of the biggest social media advertising platforms, and many people use it to discover and purchase products. WARC also says that 81% of agencies are planning to increase their investments in TikTok ads, and TikTok is helping many brands with Amazon sales as well. Instagram and YouTube will win big time if TikTok gets banned in the US, so advertisers are walking a tightrope, intrigued yet wary, as regulatory gray areas and brand safety fears loom large.

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