Guided by Voices: Digital Voiceprinting May not be Ready for the Courts

At 6:36 a.m., on 3 December 2020, the U.S Coast Guard received a call over a radio channel reserved for emergency use: “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. We lost our rudder…and we're taking on water fast.” The voice hiccuped, almost as if the man were struggling. He radioed again, this time to say that the pumps had begun to fail. He said he'd try to get his boat, a 42-footer with three people on board, back to Atwood's, a lobster company on Spruce Head Island, Maine. The Coast Guard asked for his GPS coordinates and received no reply.