Who’s Calling Now? India’s AI Startups Are Fighting Back Against Spam Calls

Spam calls aren’t any joke anymore—particularly after they sound eerily human.

In India, the place almost each cellphone buzz feels suspicious, startups like Equal AI are reimagining how we take care of the chaos.

As reported by Forbes India, these younger innovators are letting AI decide up your calls, chat with the stranger, and inform you whether or not it’s value your time. Sounds dreamy, proper?

But right here’s the twist: this isn’t only a cool gadget factor—it’s survival tech.

People have misplaced billions to cellphone scams, and as deepfake voices sneak into calls, the previous “Do Not Disturb” listing feels laughably outdated.

An analogous wave of concern has been echoing by means of NDTV’s coverage of AI scams, the place cloned voices have duped even tech-savvy customers.

Creepy? Absolutely. But additionally the right cause for innovation.

The startup Equal AI, based by Keshav Reddy, claims its system doesn’t simply display screen numbers; it listens, transcribes, and responds dynamically—like a digital secretary that speaks English, Hindi, and Hinglish.

And guess what? It’s free, at the least for now. That’s a giant deal, particularly in a rustic the place individuals get a mean of 20 spam calls a day.

An analogous idea by SpiderX AI is already catching traction amongst companies. The catch? Whether customers will belief machines to reply private calls.

The humorous half is, AI is likely to be preventing a battle in opposition to itself. While scammers use cloned voices to control victims, AI-driven apps are attempting to detect them sooner than people can blink.

Some tech consultants instructed The Indian Express that that is turning into an “AI versus AI” warzone, the place artificial speech detectors should evolve continuously simply to remain one step forward.

Personally, I’m torn. It’s thrilling to think about a future the place a pleasant bot shields you from scammers, however unsettling too—do we actually need an app to eavesdrop earlier than we do?

As Tech Crunch just lately hinted, regulation and consent would be the subsequent massive battleground.

Until that occurs, perhaps the neatest transfer remains to be old-school: don’t belief each sweet-sounding voice on the road.