Artificial intelligence is making it easier than ever to create convincing fake videos, cloned voices, and manipulated images. While these technologies open up new possibilities, they also raise serious concerns around misinformation, fraud, and digital trust.

For Amitabh Kumar, Co-Founder of Contrails AI, these concerns aren’t theoretical. Having spent years advising global technology companies such as Meta, Google, Netflix, Uber, and Twitter on trust and safety issues, he witnessed firsthand how rapidly online threats evolve—and how difficult it can be for institutions to keep up.

That experience eventually led him to launch Contrails AI alongside co-founder Digvijay Singh. The startup is building AI-powered infrastructure that helps governments, enterprises, and platforms detect deepfakes, synthetic media, and AI-generated fraud before they cause damage.

Recently, the company raised over $1 million in a pre-seed funding round, marking an important milestone in its journey to strengthen digital trust in the age of generative AI.

In an exclusive conversation with Indian Startup Times, Amitabh Kumar shares the story behind Contrails AI, the growing challenge of synthetic media, lessons from fundraising, and why he believes authenticity will become one of the most valuable assets on the internet.

From Trust & Safety to Entrepreneurship

Amitabh never planned to become a founder.

His career was built around helping some of the world’s largest internet platforms tackle complex trust and safety challenges. Over the years, he observed how companies struggled to stay ahead of issues such as misinformation, hate speech, fake accounts, and coordinated online manipulation.

But the arrival of generative AI changed everything.

“The challenge was no longer just harmful content. It became about whether people could trust what they were seeing, hearing, or reading online,” says Amitabh.

He realized that deepfakes and AI-generated content could create a much larger problem—a world where people begin to question the authenticity of everything.

“When trust disappears, the impact goes far beyond technology. It affects businesses, governments, financial systems, and even democracy itself.”

Recognizing the scale of the challenge, Amitabh teamed up with Digvijay Singh, who brought extensive experience in building AI systems at scale. Together, they founded Contrails AI with a mission to help organizations verify authenticity in an increasingly synthetic digital world.

Why the Name ‘Contrails’?

The name Contrails AI has an interesting story behind it.

A contrail is the white trail left behind by an aircraft in the sky. Even after the plane has moved on, evidence of its presence remains visible.

For the founders, this concept closely reflects how synthetic media operates.

“Deepfakes and AI-generated content may appear convincing, but they often leave subtle traces behind. The challenge is finding those traces.”

Contrails AI was built around this idea. Its technology analyzes subtle patterns in images, audio, and video that often go unnoticed but can reveal whether content has been artificially generated.

The name also reflects the company’s broader vision—not just identifying fake content after it appears, but helping organizations detect risks early and act before significant damage occurs.

Spotting a Growing Problem

The idea for Contrails AI wasn’t sparked by a single incident. Instead, it emerged after years of watching even the most sophisticated technology companies struggle to verify digital content.

As AI tools became increasingly powerful, Amitabh saw traditional moderation systems becoming less effective.

“When a cloned voice can approve a bank transaction or a deepfake video can influence public opinion, manual reviews and rule-based systems are no longer enough.”

That realization convinced him that the world needed a dedicated detection layer built specifically for the age of generative AI.

And that’s exactly what Contrails AI set out to create.

Building Trust in a Trust Industry

One of the biggest challenges for any company operating in the trust and safety sector is proving its own credibility.

According to Amitabh, Contrails AI has focused on letting its work speak for itself.

“We’ve always believed that trust is earned through results, not marketing.”

Instead of making bold claims, the company prioritizes real-world deployments, measurable outcomes, and transparent communication about both its strengths and limitations.

This approach has helped Contrails establish credibility with enterprises, regulators, and government stakeholders alike.

Validation Beyond Revenue

For many startups, growth is measured through revenue or funding milestones. For Amitabh, some of Contrails AI’s most important validation came from the field.

One memorable moment was learning that a government agency had used a Contrails detection report as evidence in an active cybercrime investigation.

“That was the point where we realized we weren’t just building technology anymore. We were becoming part of critical digital infrastructure.”

Another major validation came when the company helped a large fintech platform uncover dozens of fake channels impersonating its brand and targeting users with fraudulent investment schemes.

The findings revealed threats that had previously gone unnoticed, highlighting the growing sophistication of synthetic media attacks.

Backing the Future of Digital Trust

Contrails AI recently raised over $1 million in pre-seed funding from a group of investors who share the company’s long-term vision for AI safety and digital trust.

For Amitabh, fundraising was less about convincing investors that synthetic media is a problem and more about demonstrating that Contrails already had a working solution.

“Investors responded to real deployments, real customers, and real outcomes.”

The company now plans to use the fresh capital to strengthen its detection technology, expand across sectors such as banking and insurance, and prepare for international growth opportunities.

Looking Ahead

As regulations around AI-generated content continue to evolve globally, Amitabh believes synthetic media detection will soon become a standard requirement for organizations rather than an optional security measure.

He sees a future where authenticity verification becomes as essential as cybersecurity.

And Contrails AI wants to be at the center of that shift.

“Our mission is simple,” Amitabh says. “We want to make authenticity verifiable.”

In a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, that mission could become one of the defining challenges of the digital era.

Interview By: Arushi Agarwal