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An AI startup uses voice authentication to fight deepfake fraud

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An AI startup uses voice authentication to fight deepfake fraud

With the advent of widely available generative AI, scammers are more likely to use deepfakes—voice imitations created with the intention of misleading—to trick victims into disclosing personal information.

Pindrop is a voice authentication startup that says it has the technology and know-how to authenticate users and change users’ content to AI-generated content. The CEO of Pindrop, Vijay Balasubramaniyan, testified before Congress on Wednesday regarding the dangers of deepfakes and the measures Congress should take to prevent them. Balasubramaniyan underlined the immediate negative effects of deepfakes, while many of the panelists concentrated on “superintelligence” or political disinformation.

The Washington Examiner was informed by Balasubramaniyan that “fundamentally, the point was that deepfakes break commerce because businesses can’t trust who’s on the other end.” Is it a machine or a person? Deepfakes distort information because it’s impossible to determine if something was said by Sen. [Chuck] Schumer or by Tom Hanks promoting dental plans. And then deepfakes destroy all contact because, as a grandmother, I have no idea who to trust if I don’t know if it’s my grandkids.”

Balasubramaniyan, Ahamad Mustaque, and Paul Judge founded Pindrop in 2015 with the goal of turning the CEO’s 2011 Ph.D. thesis into a workable product. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, Balasubramaniyan finished his graduate studies with an emphasis on finding characteristics in voice calls that could be used to confirm a user’s identity. The CEO found a number of auditory traits that can be used to create a voice “fingerprint” that can determine its authenticity. It can detect, for instance, whether a call is coming from a specific user’s phone or distinguish between aspects of the sound that are unique to the “shape of your entire vocal tract,” according to the CEO.

Although the startup is still in its early stages, the company said that it has partnerships with a number of large tech companies, such as Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services. Although Pindrop would not disclose its user count, it states that it collaborates with eight of the top ten banks and credit unions, fourteen of the top twenty insurers, and three of the top five brokerages in the US. According to a spokesperson who spoke with the Washington Examiner, Pindrop’s software has also examined over 5.3 billion calls and stopped $2.3 billion in fraud losses.

Although Pindrop is exclusively utilized by for-profit businesses, Balasubramaniyan claimed to have discussed the government’s potential use of its services with multiple Congressmen.

Because AI is a rapidly evolving field, it can be challenging for AI “fact-checkers” to stay current. According to Pindrop, it’s held up pretty well. Microsoft claimed that Pindrop could identify the software 99% of the time when it released the VALL-E large language model.

Fraud based on deepfakes has long been an issue. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on AI and Human Rights over the summer, during which the technology was discussed in front of Congress. In front of the committee, Jennifer Destefano recounted how con artists almost conned her out of $50,000 by using an artificial intelligence (AI) voice clone of her daughter.

Destefano told Congress, “It wasn’t just her voice, it was her cries, it was her sobs.” When her husband assured her that their daughter was safe and with him, the mother almost gave in to the call.

Deepfakes have been directed specifically at seniors. Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) alerted the Federal Trade Commission in May about the use of chatbots and voice clones by con artists to deceive senior citizens into believing they are speaking with a close friend or relative. “In one case, a scammer used this approach to convince an older couple that the scammer was their grandson in desperate need of money to make bail, and the couple almost lost $9,400 before a bank official alerted them to the potential fraud,” the letter stated.

According to a survey conducted by the ID verification service Regula, 37% of worldwide businesses said that they have experienced attempts to access their websites using phony voices. Businesses have also reported being targeted by fake voices.

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Google’s Isomorphic Labs Unveils AlphaFold 3, AI that Predicts Structures of Life’s Molecules

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The Google and DeepMind subsidiary Isomorphic Labs has created a new artificial intelligence model that is purportedly more accurate than existing methods at predicting the configurations and interactions of every molecule in life.

The AlphaFold 3 system, according to co-founder of DeepMind Demis Hassabis, “can predict the structures and interactions of nearly all of life’s molecules with state-of-the-art accuracy including proteins, DNA, and RNA.”

Protein interactions are essential for drug discovery and development. Examples of these interactions include those between enzymes that are essential for human metabolism and antibodies that fight infectious illnesses.

Published on May 8 in the academic journal Nature, DeepMind said that the findings might drastically cut down on the time and expense needed to create medicines that have the potential to save lives.

“We can design a molecule that will bind to a specific place on a protein, and we can predict how strongly it will bind,” Hassabis stated in a press release, utilizing these new powers.

Earlier, AlphaFold revolutionized research by making protein 3D structure prediction more straightforward. Nevertheless, prior to AlphaFold 3’s improvement, it was unable to forecast situations in which a protein bound with another molecule.

Despite being limited to non-commercial use, scientists are reportedly excited about its increased predictive power and ability to speed up the drug discovery process.

“AlphaFold 3 allows us to generate very precise structural predictions in a matter of seconds, according to a statement released by Isomorphic Labs on X.”

“This discovery opens up exciting possibilities for drug discovery, allowing us to rationally develop therapeutics against targets that were previously difficult or deemed intractable to modulate,” the blog post continued.

The AlphaFold Server Login Process

The AlphaFold Server, a recently released research tool, will be available to scientists for free, according to a statement made by Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs.

Isomorphic Labs is apparently collaborating with pharmaceutical companies to use the potential of AlphaFold 3 in drug design. The goal is to tackle practical drug design issues and ultimately create novel, game-changing medicines for patients.

Since 2021, a database containing more than 200 million protein structures has made AlphaFold’s predictions freely available to non-commercial researchers. In academic works, this resource has been mentioned thousands of times.

According to DeepMind, researchers may now conduct experiments with just a few clicks thanks to the new server’s simplified workflow.

Using a FASTA file, AlphaFold Server’s web interface will enable data entry for a variety of biological molecule types. After processing the task, the AI model displays a 3D overview of the structure.

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Phone.com Launches AI-Connect, a Cutting-Edge Conversational AI Service

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AI-Connect, a revolutionary conversational speech artificial intelligence (AI) service, was unveiled by Phone.com today. AI-Connect, the newest development in Phone.com’s commercial phone system, offers callers and businesses a smooth and effective contact experience.

AI-Connect is specifically designed to handle inbound leads and schedule appointments without the clumsiness of cookie-cutter call routing or the expense of a contact center. This is ideal for small and micro businesses that need to take advantage of every opportunity to convert interest into sales but lack the luxury of an administrative team or a call center to handle the influx of prospects or sales calls.

AI-Connect can effectively manage duties like call routing, schedule management, and FAQ responding since it is built to engage in genuine, free-flowing conversations with callers. Modern automatic voice recognition (ASR), large language model (LLM), text-to-speech (TTS), natural language understanding (NLU), and natural language processing (NLP) technologies are used to enable this capacity.

The real differentiator with AI-Connect is its capacity to provide goal-oriented, conversational communication. Excellent intent recognition is provided by the company’s creative use of LLM in conjunction with NLU/NLP hybrid infrastructure. Notable is also how the new service leverages machine learning to deliver customized suggestions and detailed call metrics for every engagement.

Phone.com CEO and Co-Founder Ari Rabban stated, “AI-Connect is much more than just a service or new iteration of AI-enabled CX; it’s a strategic game-changer that strips away the burden of expensive, complicated technology designed for small businesses.” “AI-Connect, a component of our UCaaS platform, dismantles conventional barriers and gives companies of all sizes access to a realm of efficiency and expertise that would normally require significant time and investment.”

A professional voice greets customers and provides them with a number of easy options when they initiate a call to an AI-Connect script. AI-Connect guarantees that Phone.com customers maximize every engagement, regardless of their availability to answer, from easily arranging, rescheduling, or canceling appointments to smoothly connecting with a specific contact or department.

AI-Connect effectively filters out spam and other undesirable calls by utilizing sophisticated call screening capabilities, saving both business owners and callers important time.

The discussion between callers and AI-Connect is facilitated by sophisticated conversational design, which also optimizes call flow and delivers real-time responses that are most effective. Businesses may easily modify and implement AI-Connect to meet their specific needs thanks to the intuitive user interface (UI).

“We look forward to embarking on the next chapter of communications with great anticipation as innovation is in our DNA,” said Alon Cohen, the acclaimed Chief Technology Officer of Phone.com, whose engineering prowess produced the first VoIP call ever. The FCC’s Pulver Order, which removed certain IP-based communication services from conventional regulatory restrictions, ushered in a new age and was implemented 20 years ago. With AI-assisted interactions, “we are now in a position to investigate their transformational potential. Our commitment to transforming communication is reaffirmed as we embark on a journey towards a future characterized by intelligent solutions.”

Phone.com is celebrating 15 years of consecutive year-over-year growth, driven by a strong clientele that includes more than 50,000 enterprises and an impressive increase in market share. Supported by an unwavering dedication to providing state-of-the-art services and technology at reasonable costs, the company’s approach works well for enterprises of all sizes, accelerating its trajectory of steady expansion.

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Biosense Webster Unveils AI-Driven Heart Mapping Technology

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Today, Biosense Webster, a division of Johnson & Johnson MedTech, announced the release of the most recent iteration of its Carto 3 cardiac mapping system.

Heart mapping in three dimensions is available for cardiac ablation procedures with Carto 3 Version 8. It is integrated by Biosense Webster into technology such as the FDA-reviewed Varipulse pulsed field ablation (PFA) system.

Carto Elevate and CartoSound FAM are two new modules that Biosense Webster added to the software. These modules were created by the company to be accurate, efficient, and repeatable when used in catheter ablation procedures for arrhythmias such as AFib.

Biosense Webster’s CartoSound FAM encompasses the first application of artificial intelligence in intracardiac ultrasound. In addition to saving time, the algorithm, according to the company, provides a highly accurate map by automatically generating the left atrial anatomy prior to the catheter being inserted into the left atrium. Through the use of deep learning technology, the module produces 3D shells automatically.

Incorporating multipolar capabilities with the Optrell mapping catheter is one of the new features of the Carto Elevate module. By doing so, far-field potentials are greatly reduced and a more precise activation map for localized unipolar signals is produced. The identification of crucial areas of interest is done effectively and consistently with Elevate’s complex signals identification. An improved Confidense module generates optimal maps, and pattern acquisition automatically monitors arrhythmia burden prior to and following ablation.

Jasmina Brooks, president of Biosense Webster, stated, “We are happy to announce this new version of our Carto 3 system, which reflects our continued focus on harnessing the latest science and technology to advance tools for electrophysiologists to treat cardiac arrhythmias.” For over a decade, the Carto 3 system has served as the mainstay of catheter ablation procedures, assisting electrophysiologists in their decision-making regarding patient care. With the use of ultrasound technology, better substrate characterization, and improved signal analysis, this new version improves the mapping and ablation experience of Carto 3.

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