New app aims to protect users against deepfake threats

Hiya’s AI Phone app offers an AI-powered assistant that screens phone calls and claims to protect users from scams.

Voice intelligence services provider Hiya has unveiled an AI call assistant mobile app that acts like a personal assistant screening phone calls and taking notes during calls.

According to the company, the Hiya AI Phone app assistant answers all unknown calls on users' behalf, asks callers to state their name and purpose, and evaluates whether to connect them to a user.

When appropriate, the AI assistant connects the call, sharing the caller's name and purpose, allowing a user to decide whether to accept the call.

In its press release, Hiya claims that calls are analyzed in real-time using AI models trained to detect scam language and other indicators within conversations. If a scam is detected, the app alerts user of the risk by vibrating a phone and displaying a clear on-screen warning.

In addition, the app automates note-taking by converting conversations into summaries and extracting important events. Such summary tools are offered by a number of Android smartphone manufacturers, as well as on iOS.

Hiya told Cybernews that it uses its in-house AI models, which have been developed to detect scams and synthetic voices.

“We do not use user call data, call summaries, or call transcription data to train any AI models. However, we may use anonymized user reports, such as identifying calls as spam or not spam, to train certain AI analytics models,” the company said.

Hiya AI Phone app can be downloaded for free on Android and iOS. However, premium features cost $10 a month.

Last year, McAfee unveiled an AI-powered Deepfake Detector that scans users' browsers for unwanted content, such as investment scams, disinformation in videos, and more.