PHOTOSHOP FOR YOUR VOICE

At Adobe’s most recent annual development conference, a simple recording of comedian KeeganMichael Key saying he kissed his wife was changed to a claim he kissed conference cohost Jordan Peele “three times” – simply by having the words typed into a software interface. The company that gave us Photoshop was previewing Voco, experimental software that airbrushes voice recordings. Adobe envisions Voco fixing a word or two in a podcast after the host has left the studio, but it’s hard not to imagine nefarious uses, given that a crude recording of Donald Trump on a bus talking about women was a major plot point in last year’s election. The National Centre for Media Forensics (NCMF) says no one’s found a way to make audio forgeries undetectable. Recording devices and editing software leave traces on their work. (Adobe plans to use watermarking techniques to signal alterations, should it make Voco publicly available.) Plus, recordings are full of signatures that are hard to fake. Aside from the subtle emotional timbre of an authentic voice, NCMF analyses things like chatter in the background and even the hum from the electrical grid, which sounds different at different times and in different places. Even so, in the new world of fake news, it’s something to be aware of.