Is that voice real or AI? This Chrome extension will tell you

Key Takeaways

Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector detects voices for AI and delivers an “Authenticity score.”
The extension is available on the Chrome web store.
Results from testing the extension on known figures show that accuracy may vary.

Have you ever wondered if the voice you’re hearing in a video is AI-generated? Or you’ve listened to an audio clip from a politician or celebrity, and you’re not quite sure if they actually said that or not? Times have certainly changed, and a new Chrome extension called Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector is here to try to help.

The new Chrome extension works by using AI to listen to voices played in a video or audio stream and then assigning the voice an “Authenticity score.” Speaking to Engadget, Hiya said “that third-party testers have validated the extension as over 99 percent accurate.”

The Hiya Deepkfake Voice Detector extension is available on the Chrome web store now. Once you download it, you’ll be asked to make an account with Hiya and verify your email address. After that, you’re good to go and can start detecting whether voices are authentic or not.

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Does this new voice detector work?

I put it to the test to see if it can detect real or fake voices

Hiya

The premise of the Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector sounds great, especially when you see AI-generated videos and deepfakes floating around everywhere now on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

To test to see if the new extension worked, I tried three videos on YouTube to see how it would detect the voices in them.

First off, I used a video of Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, talking about things that inspire him. Using the Hiya extension, it analyzed Cook’s voice and gave it an authenticity score of 60/100 with the extension saying “our models are uncertain about this voice.” Since the video is from GQ, I’m fairly certain that it is, in fact, Tim Cook. So the first result seems a bit off.

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For my second try, I used a video by popular tech YouTuber Marquees Brownlee. The Hiya extension analyzed Brownlee’s voice and gave it an authenticity score of 95/100, stating that, “The sampled voice is likely authentic.” Considering the video was directly from Brownlee’s channel, I’d say it got this one right.

Finally, I tried using the extension on an AI-generated video of Morgan Freeman, a unique and instantly recognizable voice — a true test of the Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector. When I tested the video, the extension gave it a score of 64/100, saying it was uncertain about the voice, similar to the results of the Tim Cook video. So, it seems some voices might be too hard to tell, even if they are definitively fake or real.

Hiya’s AI voice detector Google Chrome extension is an innovative idea, especially when deepfakes are floating all over the internet, though its results may vary.

Google Chrome

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