NTSB Restricts Data Access After AI Reconstructs Deceased Pilots' Voices
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) temporarily restricted access to its open data system following the unauthorized reconstruction and online distribution of cockpit audio from a UPS cargo plane crash using artificial intelligence. The incident involved the use of AI tools to recreate the voices of pilots who perished in the crash, based on a spectrogram file included in the NTSB's investigation documents. A spectrogram is a visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies in a sound signal. Despite federal laws prohibiting the release of cockpit audio recordings, the spectrogram file was used to reconstruct the audio, raising significant privacy and ethical concerns. The NTSB has since restored access to its system, but 42 investigation cases, including those related to the Louisville crash, remain under review. 
