The AI Arms Race: Deepfake Generation vs. Detection

AI-generated voice deepfakes have crossed the uncanny valley, fueling a surge in fraud that outpaces traditional security measures. Detection technology is racing to keep up.

If deepfakes were a disease, this would be a pandemic. Artificial Intelligence (AI) now generates deepfake voice at a scale and quality that has bridged the uncanny valley.

Fraud is increasingly being fueled by voice deepfakes. An analysis by Pindrop (using a ‘liveness detection tool’) examined 130 million calls in Q4 2024 and found an increase of 173% in the use of synthetic voice compared to Q1. This growth is expected to continue with AI models like Respeecher (legitimately used in movies, video games and documentaries) able to change pitch, timbre, and accent in real time – effectively adding emotion to a mechanically produced voice. Synthesized voice has successfully crossed the so-called uncanny valley.

The ‘uncanny valley’ is the dip in human acceptance for new developments ...