Reality Defender, a New York-based startup that is dedicated to detecting deepfake media, has announced a partnership with ElevenLabs that is poised to enhance its platform’s capabilities.
The latter is very familiar with the mechanics of deepfake technology; indeed, it specializes in it. ElevenLabs first gained notoriety in early 2023 when a Vice journalist used the company’s voice cloning technology to make a synthetic soundalike that tricked his bank’s voice-based biometric authentication system.
That may have actually helped the company to attract investors, with ElevenLabs closing a $19 million Series A funding round soon after. Since then, it has also established strategic partnerships, including a collaboration on text-to-animated speech technology with Pika, a text-to-video AI specialist.
Through its partnership with Reality Defender, ElevenLabs’ deepfake expertise will be leveraged to guard against the deepfake threat, via audio deepfake detection models. Reality Defender’s clients include governments and international organizations that are keen to guard against the threats of deepfake-driven disinformation and fraud; and ElevenLabs is emphasizing its commitment to AI safety ideals that align with those efforts.
“We at ElevenLabs work every day to develop and implement best-in-class safeguards that prevent our products from being misused,” explained ElevenLabs’ Head of AI Safety, Aleksandra Pedraszewska. “Collaborating with fellow technology companies, academia, and policymakers to develop reliable methods for AI content detection is a key pillar of our safety efforts. We are excited to partner with Reality Defender, who are leaders in AI-generated information detection, to develop new safeguards that deter bad actors from using our tools.”
For Reality Defender’s part, co-founder and CEO Ben Colman emphasized how ElevenLabs’ technology would complement the firm’s existing suite of deepfake detection tools. “This collaboration, a first for Reality Defender, will allow us to provide highly advanced audio detection that stays several steps ahead of bad actors and fraudsters,” he said.
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July 18, 2024 – by Alex Perala
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