Recently new tools are appearing in journalism to substitute journalists. For example in this one, an AI does the work of this woman by presenting the news replicating her voice and her aspect.
For that reason, I want to explore this concept to the limits testing with an informal experiment aimed to test whether people could distinguish between a human voice and an AI-generated one interviewing a famous person. The results suggest a generational divide in our ability to identify artificial intelligence in speech.
The Experiment
A group of participants, including both young and older people, listened to an audio recording of the actor Tobey Maguire interviewing Martin Scorsese about his upcoming movie with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson about the mafia in Hawaii. After listening to it they were asked to determine whether it was created by an AI or a real human. The results were as follows, based on responses from 10 participants:
| Perception | Number of participant | Ages |
| Seems like AI | 3 | 20-25 |
| Does not seem like AI | 7 | 5 between 50-60, 2 were 20 |
Reactions to the audio
Among those who thought it was not AI, one participant in their 20s noticed a slight echo in the audio, which could suggest an artificial quality. One of the Spanish adults noticed that it could be an edited montage as Martin Scorsese’s responses seemed unrelated to the questions, making it feel like a fake conversation. However, they did not think it was AI-generated.
The Results
The experiment revealed that younger participants were more likely to identify the voice as AI-generated, while older participants were less able to recognize the artificial nature of the speech. This could be attributed to younger generations being more exposed to AI-generated content in daily life, making them more attuned to its subtle differences compared to human speech.
What This Means
As AI-generated voices become increasingly realistic, recognizing them may become more challenging. However, this experiment highlights that familiarity with technology plays a crucial role in distinguishing between human and artificial voices. With AI integration expanding across industries, understanding these differences may become an essential skill in digital literacy. As AI continues to evolve, the generational gap in perception may gradually disappear. Additionally, as AI voices become more sophisticated, recognizing them may require more than just intuition—perhaps even practice, such as comparing AI-generated speech to Martin Scorsese’s real voice. This experiment reinforces the idea that exposure to technology is key in detecting AI.
Would you be able to tell the difference?
