Tarini Padmanabhuni’s grandfather was duped by an AI-generated voice claiming that his sibling had been kidnapped and paid a ransom. However, it emerged that his sibling was elsewhere. Following the incident, which occurred approximately two years ago, Padmanabhuni founded San Francisco-based DetectifAI.
According to the FBI, Americans lost nearly $900 million to AI-powered scams last year, an increase of 24% compared with 2024. The losses suffered by people aged 60 and over doubled those of the 50-59 age group. Companies working in deepfake voice detection include:
- Reality Defender
- Pindrop
- Resemble AI
- Microsoft Azure AI Content Safety
- Nuance
According to Padmanabhuni, because existing solutions operate in the cloud and on remote servers, phone manufacturers cannot integrate them directly into devices. Rather than shrinking large models, DetectifAI is designing compact AI models from the ground up that can run on smartphone operating systems. The company aims to determine instantly whether a voice is AI-generated in calls, voice messages and other audio recordings, without the content leaving the device.
DetectifAI primarily licenses its technology to phone manufacturers through a software development kit (SDK). The other pillar of its revenue model will be licensing the technology to businesses and fraud-prevention companies. The startup processes more than 100,000 calls per month for financial institutions in India. These calls use AI voice agents that handle debt collection and track credit documents; deepfake detection and speaker verification are performed on every call.
Padmanabhuni says that he began working with machine learning at the age of 12, studied cyber-physical systems at Manipal Institute of Technology in India, and led a team in the autonomous race car category of Formula Student. DetectifAI received a small seed investment from Josh Constine and Manohar Kamath. The company was selected for TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield competition, and the event will be held in San Francisco from October 13 to 15.
Background
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