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Research will investigate the societal risks posed by increasingly realistic AI voices
An Abertay University researcher has won Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) funding to explore how realistic AI-generated voices could make disinformation more convincing, particularly for minority and regional language communities.
Dr Neil Kirk, Lecturer in Psychology, is among the recipients of the latest RSE Research Awards, which are supporting 61 projects across Scotland with a total of more than £661,000 in funding.
His project will examine how synthetic voices can be used to spread misleading information and whether familiar accents, dialects or language varieties make that content seem more trustworthy.
Synthetic voices can now sound almost indistinguishable from real people. While the technology has many potential benefits, it also raises concerns about how easily people can be deceived by audio content that appears authentic.
Dr Kirk’s research will focus on speakers of Minority, Indigenous, Non-standard and Dialect (MIND) language varieties — a term used to describe communities whose languages, accents or dialects are often underrepresented in technology. The project will explore whether hearing AI systems speak in familiar ways could make synthetic audio seem especially credible.
The new work builds on Dr Kirk’s previous research into Dundonian Scots, which found that AI-generated voices could convincingly mimic regional dialects and were often mistaken for real human speech. The study highlighted how scammers could use familiar accents and dialects to make fake audio sound more trustworthy.
The project will also investigate the impact of the “Illusory Truth Effect” – a well-established psychological phenomenon in which people are more likely to believe information simply because they have heard it repeatedly.
When realistic AI-generated voices are used to repeat false claims online, they could make misleading information feel more credible and harder to challenge.
Dr Kirk said:
AI-generated voices are becoming increasingly sophisticated and, in many cases, are almost indistinguishable from real human speech. While this technology offers exciting opportunities, it also presents new challenges around trust, misinformation and public understanding. This project will explore how realistic AI voices may influence the way people judge information, particularly within communities that speak minority, indigenous or regional language varieties. By understanding these risks, we hope to identify practical ways to help people recognise and resist AI-enabled disinformation before it can cause harm.
The research is the first to examine how these risks may interact and will seek to identify practical interventions that could help protect vulnerable communities from AI-driven voice disinformation. It is one of 61 projects supported through the latest RSE Research Awards round.
The RSE Research Awards Programme supports Scotland’s research sector by nurturing promising talent, stimulating research and encouraging international collaboration. In the latest funding round, lead investigators represented 14 Scottish universities and research institutes, with collaborators from 22 institutions across the world.
RSE Vice President, Research, Professor Anne Anderson OBE FRSE, said:
The RSE’s Research Awards continue to be a cornerstone of Scotland’s thriving research community. I am confident that the recipients of these distinguished awards will push the boundaries of knowledge and create meaningful benefits for people across Scotland and beyond. On behalf of the Society, I extend warm congratulations to these exceptional researchers and their international collaborators, and I look forward to seeing the impact of their work.
