FORT LIBERTY, North Carolina—An Army psychological operations instructor has developed a tool called Ghost Machine that can mimic voices to deceive enemies. This technology, showcased during ARSOF’s exercise, uses easily-available tech to reshape governments’ abilities to influence soldiers. The program requires hardware and data to be effective.
The Ghost Machine is particularly good at replicating voices with a large amount of data, as seen in a training scenario involving a man who runs a fake podcast. This tool can clone voices and even mimic breathing patterns and pauses accurately. The program can duplicate messages in different languages but the accuracy of the translations may vary.
Achilles, the instructor behind Ghost Machine, underwent special training to design software and launch the project, which took about six weeks to develop. The main costs involved training Achilles and hiring a contractor. The program’s interface is based on the Gradio app, and its algorithms use commercially available artificial intelligence models.
Instructors are also exploring new tactics like using speakers on drones to deliver messages to enemies. This approach, inspired by tactics in Ukraine where soldiers surrendered to drones, combines modern technology with traditional techniques like dropping leaflets. This method adds a level of intimidation and requires knowledge of the enemies’ actual location.
