FTC Launches Voice Cloning Challenge to Counter Harmful AI-Enabled Audio Deepfakes

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking entries to its Voice Cloning Challenge to help develop ideas on consumer protection against the fraudulent use of artificial intelligence-enabled voice cloning, also known as audio deepfakes. 

According to the FTC’s contest announcement released on Thursday, challenge contestants must focus on at least one of three intervention points, with prevention or authentication among them. The other focus areas of the contest, which offers $25,000 to the winner, are real-time detection or monitoring and post-use evaluation, the FTC said.

Contest mechanics are published on the challenge’s website, and entries will be accepted online from Jan. 2 to Jan. 12, 2024, it added.

Samuel Levine, the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection director, said the agency seeks to address voice cloning harms “before they hit the marketplace and enforce the law when they do.”

Earlier in 2023, the FTC warned consumers of scams involving voice cloning to impersonate close relatives or associates asking for money or personal information. 

Pursued under the America COMPETES Act, the Voice Cloning Challenge is FTC’s fifth project to drive the development of solutions to tackle consumer problems. The past FTC challenges include the 2017 Robocall  Challenge, which sought solutions to block illegal robocalls.