Why audio deepfakes are so hard to spot
May 14, 2026•12 min
Episode description
Voice cloning is the use of artificial intelligence to generate a clone of a real person’s voice, imitating the sound, when they pause and what words they typically emphasize. And it can be hard for people to identify voices as being AI-generated.
Research last year from UC Berkeley professor Hany Farid, an expert in digital forensics, found that people correctly identify a voice as AI-generated only 60% of the time.
Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Farid about the rapid sophistication of audio deepfakes, why it's so hard to tell the difference between a real voice and an AI-generated one right now, and some tips to help you spot voice clones.
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