{
  "id": 3161734,
  "title": "This 21-year-old entrepreneur is building a deepfake audio detection startup that alerts users during live calls",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/25/this-21-year-old-entrepreneur-is-building-a-deepfake-audio-detection",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-08-25T01:35:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "YourStory",
    "slug": "yourstory",
    "url": "https://yourstory.com/2026/08/21-year-old-entrepreneur-deepfake-audio-detection-startup-alerts-live-calls"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Tarini Padmanabhuni, a 21-year-old entrepreneur, is developing a deepfake audio detection startup called DetectifAI. The company, based in San Francisco and Bengaluru, aims to prevent deepfake scams that have affected her grandfather. Padmanabhuni, a computer science graduate specializing in Cyber-Physical Systems from MIT Manipal, has five patents pending in deepfake detection and is working on practical AI-based technologies to identify synthetic and manipulated media. DetectifAI's real-time fraud detection model provides live detection, unlike other models that work after an event. The company focuses on BFSI and healthcare sectors, where voice-based verification systems are crucial for customer authentication, patient validation, fraud prevention, and identity security. With a 10-member team, DetectifAI aims to make digital interactions more trustworthy. The company has raised a seed round from investors like Josh Constine and Manohar Kamath. Padmanabhuni also developed technology to detect deepfakes directly on phones and computers. Her vision is to create a layer of trust for audio interactions, similar to how Dolby established trust for audio quality. The global deepfake market is projected to reach $32.58 billion by 2033.",
  "summary": "Founded in 2025, San-Franciso and Bengaluru based DetectifAI is building technology to help verify humans and detect AI-generated and manipulated audio, particularly synthetic voices and audio deepfakes.",
  "key_points": [
    "21-year-old Tarini Padmanabhuni builds deepfake audio detection startup DetectifAI",
    "Real-time fraud detection model alerts users during live calls",
    "Focus on BFSI and healthcare sectors for voice-based verification systems"
  ],
  "editors_take": "DetectifAI's real-time deepfake audio detection technology aims to make voice-based verification systems more secure, particularly in the BFSI and healthcare sectors, by identifying synthetic and manipulated media during live calls.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}