If I get through a meeting without saying a word, I consider it a great success.
Unfortunately, there are times when I can no longer stay under the radar. The microphone must be unmuted, the camera might have to go on, and all the attention is on me.
At least, that was the case until this week.
Thanks to a new iPhone feature that lets anyone clone their voice with no technical chops and little time required, meeting anxiety temporarily became a thing of the past.
Announced back in May and now available as part of the public beta for iOS 17, the next major software update for Apple‘s smartphone due out in September, the “personal voice” tool lets my voice read aloud any text whatsoever without needing to speak for myself.
How does it work?
The feature lives in the accessibility section of the iPhone’s settings app, under the speech heading.
To make your own on-demand digital voice, your handset tasks you with reading aloud 150 pretty random phrases, which takes about 15 or 20 minutes depending on your patience.
Image: Personal voice is an accessibility setting designed for people who are losing the ability to speak
“A German-born author won the prize for writing”, “during the Middle Ages in Europe, people bathed less often”, and “Ancient Greeks laid the foundation of Western culture” were some of the sentences I was given. I got some weird questions afterwards from people who could hear me in the next room.
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The phone needs plenty of time to process the voice as it’s all done on the device itself, rather than uploaded to powerful computers somewhere at Apple HQ.
It needs to be locked and kept on charge, so probably best you leave it to work overnight.
With the voice ready for action, you enable the “live speech” function in settings and pick your personal voice. Triple tapping the phone’s side button will open a text box, and anything you enter will be spoken aloud.
Image: It requires the user to speak aloud 150 random phrases
Is it convincing?
Without wanting to expose certain relatives’ lack of tech know-how, it very much depends.
Digital me checked with my sister about the status of Taylor Swift tickets in a WhatsApp voice message and she seemed none the wiser. My mum replied to a cinema invitation with no qualms at all, until I asked whether anything about the message had sounded off.
Tech-savvy friends and loved ones were more immediately suspicious.
“Who are you and what have you done with Tom?” asked one.
“It kind of sounded like you, but as if someone made a robot version,” said another. They had me bang to rights.
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As for meetings (undoubtedly my most ambitious attempt to replace myself), the longer the voice went on, the more colleagues realised I was up to some mischief.
But by and large, for something that takes just 15 minutes of work and a good sleep to set up, it’s impressive.
Like the rise of generative AI such as ChatGPT and the increasing realism of deep fake videos, it’s not just the power of such technology that has caught people’s attention, but the accessibility of it.
The digital news anchor that can read this article via the play button at the top of the page required a dedicated text-to-speech publishing company, a lengthy, professional recording session, and is constantly being tweaked to ensure she doesn’t trip up over certain words and phrases.
What I did is going to be available on everyone’s iPhone soon, with no such effort or expertise required.
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1:31
How Sky News created an AI reporter
Isn’t this just asking for fraud trouble?
Apple says it’s an accessibility feature, designed for people who struggle to speak or are losing the ability to.
The company has explained the randomised nature of the personal voice process, with it all done on-device, keeps users’ information private and secure.
The voice cannot be shared, can be deleted, and all 150 recorded phrases can be downloaded and backed up.
Computer security company McAfee has warned voice cloning technology in general is fuelling a rise in scams, but indicated Apple’s protections should be sufficient and are unlikely to contribute to the problem.
McAfee researcher Oliver Devane told Sky News: “If you were to use an online service and there was a data breach, your voice clips could potentially be stolen.
“It only being on the device and you being able to delete the files removes that risk.
“There are already services people can use if they want to use this technology for malicious purposes.”
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McAfee recently surveyed 1,009 adults in the UK – and found almost a quarter had either experienced or knew someone who’d experienced some kind of AI voice scam.
It also found 65% of adults are not confident they could identify a cloned version from the real thing.
It led to fake clips of Emma Watson reading Mein Kampf and Joe Biden announcing US troops will enter Ukraine.
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1:32
‘AI will threaten our democracy’
How can I identify a fake voice?
Regardless of how it was made, there are things you can do to protect yourself against a voice scam.
• Question the source – you could ask the person something only they would know to verify them.
• What sets them apart – is their accent or pace off? Have they lost their stutter? Listen out for key vocal traits.
• Call them back – if the voice sounds right, but the number doesn’t, call them back on their known number.
• Identify theft protection services – these notify you if your data is compromised and ends up on the dark web.
• A verbal codeword – a word or phrase to share with friends and family that you or they will say in the case of an emergency phone call, like when they’re not using their normal device.
Britain’s biggest high street bank is in talks to buy Curve, the digital wallet provider, amid growing regulatory pressure on Apple to open its payment services to rivals.
Sky News has learnt that Lloyds Banking Group is in advanced discussions to acquire Curve for a price believed to be up to £120m.
City sources said this weekend that if the negotiations were successfully concluded, a deal could be announced by the end of September.
Curve was founded by Shachar Bialick, a former Israeli special forces soldier, in 2016.
Three years later, he told an interviewer: “In 10 years time we are going to be IPOed [listed on the public equity markets]… and hopefully worth around $50bn to $60bn.”
One insider said this weekend that Curve was being advised by KBW, part of the investment bank Stifel, on the discussions with Lloyds.
If a mooted price range of £100m-£120m turns out to be accurate, that would represent a lower valuation than the £133m Curve raised in its Series C funding round, which concluded in 2023.
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That round included backing from Britannia, IDC Ventures, Cercano Management – the venture arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s estate – and Outward VC.
It was also reported to have raised more than £40m last year, while reducing employee numbers and suspending its US expansion.
In total, the company has raised more than £200m in equity since it was founded.
Curve has been positioned as a rival to Apple Pay in recent years, having initially launched as an app enabling consumers to combine their debit and credit cards in a single wallet.
One source close to the prospective deal said that Lloyds had identified Curve as a strategically attractive bid target as it pushes deeper into payments infrastructure under chief executive Charlie Nunn.
Lloyds is also said to believe that Curve would be a financially rational asset to own because of the fees Apple charges consumers to use its Apple Pay service.
In March, the Financial Conduct Authority and Payment Systems Regulator began working with the Competition and Markets Authority to examine the implications of the growth of digital wallets owned by Apple and Google.
Lloyds owns stakes in a number of fintechs, including the banking-as-a-service platform ThoughtMachine, but has set expanding its tech capabilities as a key strategic objective.
The group employs more than 70,000 people and operates more than 750 branches across Britain.
Curve is chaired by Lord Fink, the former Man Group chief executive who has become a prolific investor in British technology start-ups.
When he was appointed to the role in January, he said: “Working alongside Curve as an investor, I have had a ringside seat to the company’s unassailable and well-earned rise.
“Beginning as a card which combines all your cards into one, to the all-encompassing digital wallet it has evolved into, Curve offers a transformative financial management experience to its users.
“I am proud to have been part of the journey so far, and welcome the chance to support the company through its next, very significant period of growth.”
IDC Ventures, one of the investors in Curve’s Series C funding round, said at the time of its last major fundraising: “Thanks to their unique technology…they have the capability to intercept the transaction and supercharge the customer experience, with its Double Dip Rewards, [and] eliminating nasty hidden fees.
“And they do it seamlessly, without any need for the customer to change the cards they pay with.”
News of the talks between Lloyds and Curve comes days before Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is expected to outline plans to bolster Britain’s fintech sector by endorsing a concierge service to match start-ups with investors.
Lord Fink declined to comment when contacted by Sky News on Saturday morning, while Curve did not respond to an enquiry sent by email.
Lloyds also declined to comment, while Stifel KBW could not be reached for comment.
The UK economy unexpectedly shrank in May, even after the worst of Donald Trump’s tariffs were paused, official figures showed.
A standard measure of economic growth, gross domestic product (GDP), contracted 0.1% in May, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Rather than a fall being anticipated, growth of 0.1% was forecast by economists polled by Reuters as big falls in production and construction were seen.
It followed a 0.3% contraction in April, when Mr Trump announced his country-specific tariffs and sparked a global trade war.
A 90-day pause on these import taxes, which has been extended, allowed more normality to resume.
This was borne out by other figures released by the ONS on Friday.
Exports to the United States rose £300m but “remained relatively low” following a “substantial decrease” in April, the data said.
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Overall, there was a “large rise in goods imports and a fall in goods exports”.
A ‘disappointing’ but mixed picture
It’s “disappointing” news, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said. She and the government as a whole have repeatedly said growing the economy was their number one priority.
“I am determined to kickstart economic growth and deliver on that promise”, she added.
But the picture was not all bad.
Growth recorded in March was revised upwards, further indicating that companies invested to prepare for tariffs. Rather than GDP of 0.2%, the ONS said on Friday the figure was actually 0.4%.
It showed businesses moved forward activity to be ready for the extra taxes. Businesses were hit with higher employer national insurance contributions in April.
The expansion in March means the economy still grew when the three months are looked at together.
While an interest rate cut in August had already been expected, investors upped their bets of a 0.25 percentage point fall in the Bank of England’s base interest rate.
Such a cut would bring down the rate to 4% and make borrowing cheaper.
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7:09
Is Britain going bankrupt?
Analysts from economic research firm Pantheon Macro said the data was not as bad as it looked.
“The size of the manufacturing drop looks erratic to us and should partly unwind… There are signs that GDP growth can rebound in June”, said Pantheon’s chief UK economist, Rob Wood.
Why did the economy shrink?
The drops in manufacturing came mostly due to slowed car-making, less oil and gas extraction and the pharmaceutical industry.
The fall was not larger because the services industry – the largest part of the economy – expanded, with law firms and computer programmers having a good month.
It made up for a “very weak” month for retailers, the ONS said.
Monthly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures are volatile and, on their own, don’t tell us much.
However, the picture emerging a year since the election of the Labour government is not hugely comforting.
This is a government that promised to turbocharge economic growth, the key to improving livelihoods and the public finances. Instead, the economy is mainly flatlining.
Output shrank in May by 0.1%. That followed a 0.3% drop in April.
However, the subsequent data has shown us that much of that growth was artificial, with businesses racing to get orders out of the door to beat the possible introduction of tariffs. Property transactions were also brought forward to beat stamp duty changes.
In April, we experienced the hangover as orders and industrial output dropped. Services also struggled as demand for legal and conveyancing services dropped after the stamp duty changes.
Many of those distortions have now been smoothed out, but the manufacturing sector still struggled in May.
Signs of recovery
Manufacturing output fell by 1% in May, but more up-to-date data suggests the sector is recovering.
“We expect both cars and pharma output to improve as the UK-US trade deal comes into force and the volatility unwinds,” economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics said.
Meanwhile, the services sector eked out growth of 0.1%.
A 2.7% month-to-month fall in retail sales suppressed growth in the sector, but that should improve with hot weather likely to boost demand at restaurants and pubs.
Struggles ahead
It is unlikely, however, to massively shift the dial for the economy, the kind of shift the Labour government has promised and needs in order to give it some breathing room against its fiscal rules.
The economy remains fragile, and there are risks and traps lurking around the corner.
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7:09
Is Britain going bankrupt?
Concerns that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is considering tax hikes could weigh on consumer confidence, at a time when businesses are already scaling back hiring because of national insurance tax hikes.
Inflation is also expected to climb in the second half of the year, further weighing on consumers and businesses.