On the eve of the Maharashtra Assembly elections, Ravindranath Patil, a former IPS officer from Pune, made startling statements accusations against Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) leader Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole, accusing them of embezzling Bitcoins from a 2019 cryptocurrency fraud case and using them to campaign for the polls.
The former IPS officer alleged that Amitabh Gupta, then commissioner of Pune police, and Bhagyashri Nautake, the former deputy commissioner of police who handled the cybercrime investigations, were involved in misappropriating Bitcoins, which were used by the two political leaders were used.
The Bharatiya Janata Party later released several files as alleged proof of this. These audio files are said to include Supriya Sule, Nana Patole, Amitabh Gupta and Gaurav Mehta, an employee of an accounting firm called Sarathi Associates.
“Need cash in exchange for bitcoins… Don’t worry about questions… We will handle it when we come to power…”
NCP (Sharad Pawar) leader Supriya Sule to Gaurav Mehta, the employee of accounting firm Sarathi Associates.
(3 voice notes) pic.twitter.com/Pulphd6Oki
—BJP (@BJP4India) November 19, 2024
Online, many are calling this audio AI-generated, even as Ajit Pawar of the rival NCP faction claimed that one of the voices was that of his sister and the other was ‘someone I have worked with a lot’. Supriya Sule has denied that this is her voice. Just like Nana Patole. Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate has reportedly raided Gaurav Mehta’s house in Raipur.
Is this audio generated by AI?
India Today Fact Check used three publicly available AI detection tools to analyze the audio files.
The first is TrueMedia, founded by Oren Etzioni, a professor at the University of Washington. The second is the Deefake-O-Meter from the University at Buffalo. The third is the Deepfake Voice Detector, made by Hiya, a company that screens calls for spam and fraud.
It is worth noting that the findings of these tools are not always accurate. Sometimes they also produce contradictory results.
Here’s what each of these tools found:
TrueMedia:
TrueMedia uses three different detectors to determine the authenticity of an audio sample. According to the tool, there is “substantial evidence” that all four audio clips were generated by AI. However, one of the detectors had less confidence in the alleged audio fragment of Nana Patole.
DeepFake-O-meter:
DeepFake-O-Meter has six different detectors. Four of these detectors had more than 80 percent confidence that the alleged audio clips of Supriya Sule, Amitabh Gupta and Gaurav Mehta were AI-generated.
DeepFake-O-Meter’s confidence level was also relatively lower for the alleged audio clip of Nana Patole. But three out of six detectors said with more than 80 percent certainty that it was generated by AI.
Alleged analysis of Nana Patole audio.
Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector:
According to Hiya’s Deepfake Voice Detector scores, the alleged samples of Supriya Sule, Amitabh Gupta and Gaurav Mehta were AI-generated. While the tool was unsure about Nana Patole’s alleged voice.
What is remarkable is that the alleged audio clip of Nana Patole is only six seconds long. This short audio clip may not be suitable for analysis tools. This may explain the low reliability score of the tools.
What do the experts say?
India Today is part of the Deepfake Analysis Unit of the Misinformation Combat Alliance, which consists of a panel of technology and AI experts.
The DAU analyzed all the audio samples and concluded that three of the viral audio samples were generated by AI, noting that for Nana Patole’s sample, the confidence level of several tools was slightly lower. The DAU experts explained that two factors could be responsible for this. First, the audio clip is short, which may prevent the tools from detecting any sign of tampering. Secondly, the fact that the language is Marathi and tools are not trained in it long enough can also lead to low confidence among the detectors.
Particularly Nana Patole rejected the BJP’s allegations and said, “Even (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi recognizes my voice.” He too told reporters that he is a farmer and doesn’t understand Bitcoin at all.
Published by:
Pathikrit Sanyal
Published on:
November 20, 2024