SDK from DetectifAI for local deepfake voice detection on mobile phones
Startup DetectifAI has released an SDK that detects deepfake voices directly in a phone's operating system without sending audio to the cloud. It offers the tool to phone manufacturers and businesses, and already processes over 100 000 calls per month for financial institutions in India.
DetectifAI, a San Francisco startup founded by Tarini Padmanabhuni, has released an SDK for deepfake voice detection intended to run directly in a smartphone's operating system. Unlike competing solutions, which the company says shrink large cloud models into smaller versions, DetectifAI designs compact models from the ground up to process audio locally on the device, without data from calls, voice messages or other audio leaving the phone.
The company primarily targets phone manufacturers, licensing its SDK to them to integrate detection as a standard operating system feature – Padmanabhuni compares this step to the exclusive agreement between AT&T and the first iPhone and expects deepfake detection to become a common specification, much like camera resolution. Licensing to businesses and fraud prevention companies is intended to be a second source of revenue. According to the founder, the startup is already generating revenue and processing over 100 000 calls per month for financial institutions in India, where AI voice agents handle debt collection and loan documentation, and every call undergoes both deepfake detection and speaker verification; the company did not name specific customers due to non-disclosure agreements.
Padmanabhuni founded the company after a deepfake voice imitating her uncle tricked her grandfather into paying ransom for alleged kidnappings. According to FBI, Americans lost nearly 900 million dollars to AI-based scams last year, up 24 % year over year, with people over 60 losing twice as much as those aged 50 to 59. Competitors of DetectifAI include Reality Defender, Pindrop, Resemble AI, Microsoft Azure AI Content Safety and Nuance (also owned by Microsoft). DetectifAI has so far raised a small amount of seed funding from investors Josh Constine and Manohar Kamath and will compete in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt on 13 to 15 October in San Francisco.
Why it matters
Deepfake voice detection currently runs mainly on cloud servers, so phone manufacturers have been unable to integrate it directly into devices, and people have had no way to protect themselves during calls. If local detection becomes widespread in phone operating systems, it could protect older people in particular, who are the most affected by voice scams according to statistics from FBI, and offer companies in financial services and fraud prevention a new tool for verifying callers during calls.
Two audiences, two different impacts
What this means
For individuals
The risk of fraud using AI-generated imitations of the voices of loved ones is growing, and these imitations remain difficult to detect; future phones could offer built-in detection during calls.
For a business
Companies in financial services and fraud prevention are gaining the option to license local deepfake voice detection and speaker verification to supplement customer verification processes over the phone, as financial institutions in India are already doing.
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