Anti-AI AI device distinguishes synthetic speech from real human voices

With increasing outcry that machines will soon replace human beings in every aspect of existence, ranging from employment to relationships, a group of Australian researchers has launched a small beacon of hope by inventing a device that can give humanity solid ground in interactive communications.

According to Science Alert, the Australian creative technology agency DT announced that it has created an artificial intelligence or AI device that can tell its human owner that the entity he or she is speaking to at the other end of the line is either a fellow human being or a synthetic construct. DT has described its device as the “anti-AI AI.”

The DT’s anti-AI AI device is worn almost like an earpiece. It has been programmed to identify within a huge database a series of many artificial voices, constructed and designed to sound as human. Mechanical speech patterns are immediately identified from actual human voices. Whenever the human owner speaks to someone through his or her smartphone, the DT AI device immediately captures the sound of the voice of the other party and sends it to the massive database that is housed in the cloud. The captured audio file is then run by and compared to the others in the database. Should the DT AI device detect and conclude that the owner’s fellow conversant is a bona fide human being, then no warning is given

Whenever the human owner speaks to someone through his or her smartphone, the DT AI device immediately captures the sound of the voice of the other party and sends it to the massive database that is housed in the cloud. The captured audio file is then run by and compared to the others in the database. Should the DT AI device detect and conclude that the owner’s fellow conversant is a bona fide human being, then no warning is given

The anti-AI AI device can detect if you’re talking to a robot or machine. (Source)

What makes the DT AI device even more interesting, however, is the kind of warning it does give should it find that the conversant is an artificial intelligence itself mimicking a human voice. It will not warn the owner through the usual flash of light, sound, or vibration. Instead, a thermoelectric Peltier plate with cooling features will send a subtle but still felt chilly sensation to the owner’s skin. This is the DT AI device’s way of warning him or her that the person at the other end of the line is actually a “cold, lifeless machine.”

DT has just finished putting the final touches to its AI device as a proof of concept. More research and development are still needed to build it and launch it into the market.