The artificial intelligence achieved such precision in imitating human tone, cadence and emotion, that the voice became a instrument of political power and global manipulation. So-called audio deepfakes—synthetic audio indistinguishable from real speech—are undermining public trust and forcing governments, courts and digital platforms to respond to a new era of disinformation.
The phenomenon gained notoriety recently, when a song falsely attributed to Adele circulated on YouTube as a tribute to the conservative activist Charlie Kirkmurdered on September 10. Thousands of users celebrated her without knowing that the artist’s voice had been cloned by AI. Other imitations of Ed Sheeran y Justin Bieber They followed the same path, accumulating millions of views.
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“The Internet has been replaced by mediocre content created by scammers looking for quick money,” he warned Alex Mahadevanof the Poynter Institute, in an interview with AFP. For Lucas Hansen, co-founder of the NGO CivAI“an outright ban is unrealistic, but platforms must assume that these deepfakes can manipulate public discourse or incite hatred.”
From 2023, the border between satire and sabotage has been blurred. Manipulated recordings of opposition leaders circulated in the United Kingdom and Slovakia; In Pakistan, the party Imran Khan used the imprisoned former prime minister’s AI-generated voice to spread messages; and in Ukraine, a fake video-audio of Volodímir Zelenski asking for surrender set a precedent.
The debate also reaches the cultural and legal sphere. In April 2024, the comedian’s estate George Carlin managed to remove imitations of her voice, while the Bombay High Court recognized the singer’s voice this year Asha Bhosle as a protected trait.
According to a study by Maria Pawelecan academic at the University of Tübingen, deepfakes “erode the foundations of democracy by distorting public deliberation.” Due to its emotional charge and verisimilitude, the AI generated voice exploits affective biases.
Fake audios, he warns, require less visual evidence, spread quickly and are almost impossible to verify in real time. This loss of “information trust” favors manipulation and puts democratic legitimacy at risk.
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Although YouTube removed the supposed Adele tribute, dozens of similar videos continue to circulate. They reflect a new era in which music generators allow any user to imitate voices and create songs.