#6 Stolen voices stealing millions

Knowing the impact AI has on you, your work and your world is becoming more important every day.

Not only because of the benefits you can reap from using AI in your day-to-day activities - but because it’s essential you arm yourself against the increasingly sophisticated scams and lies that modern generative AI can propagate.

In today’s newsletter:

• Stolen voices stealing millions: AI scams take impostor frauds to another level

• The rundown: Teachers using ChatGPT, Malaysia Airlines to use AI, and personalized skincare recommendations

• Free resources: Thought-provoking and eye-opening AI podcasts

• Thought leadership: AI won’t take our jobs?

• Brave new browsers: Internet search taking on a whole new feel 

STOLEN VOICES STEALING MILLIONS

AI is making it easier than ever before for impostors to target their victims with realistic, convincing scams that are costing people millions of dollars.

Remember the Manti Te’o catfishing scam back in 2013?

Where the linebacker made national headlines for being involved in a dead girlfriend-impostor hoax?

(If you don’t, watch Netflix’s “Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist.”)

Well, that was just a sample of what’s possible with impersonation fraud.

36,000 people fell victim to impostor scams in 2022, accounting for over $11 million in losses, and significantly impacting their mental health.

What’s worrying is the increasing number of these scams, which is hardly surprising, given the spread of generative AI and machine learning software, like TikTok’s new #boldglamourfilter and character.ai’s voice cloning software.

One recent example of an AI-powered voicing-cloning scam involved impostors phoning Benjamin Perkins’ parents, and impersonating a lawyer representing Benjamin. The impostor told Benjamin’s parents (to the effect of):

“Your son has killed someone in a car accident, he needs money for legal fees.”

The impostors then proceeded to request $16,000 from Benjamin’s parents, who collected to money and transferred it through a bitcoin terminal - losing it forever.

Scams like this are nothing new. Fraudsters play on victims’ primal emotions, namely fear, to convince them to do things they normally wouldn’t.

But when it’s this easy to steal and mimic a voice, the repercussions are clear.

More than mimicking celebrities like Emma Watson reading Mein Kampf, anybody can say anything they like online, and if they get any backlash, turn around and say:

“I never said that, that’s a deepfake - someone cloned my voice and impersonated me saying those things.”

Impersonators can trick loved ones into sending money and can even bypass voice-locking security systems gaining access to banks, safes and sensitive data.

So how do you avoid falling for one of these scams? How do you know what’s real?

We’re not quite sure. But, approaching everything with caution and scepticism seems to be a good initial line of defence.

THE RUNDOWN 🐂

Teachers and students have rapidly incorporated ChatGPT into their teaching and learning, with over 40% of teachers using it “at least once a week.” (link)

EFTs that use AI to invest, and EFTs that invest in companies which leverage AI - what’s the difference between the two? (link)

Global automotive voice command system market to grow at 20.25% CAGR between 2023-2031. (link)

Comprehensive autocomplete in emails to write personalized, stylized emails, essentially providing white-collar workers with a digital assistant. (link)

Malaysia Airlines has just signed a 5-year deal with IBS, which will see the airline migrate its crew management system to iFlight Crew, an AI cloud-based platform. (link)

Cetaphil releases a comprehensive AI skin analyzer, which offers skin assessment and skincare recommendations in seconds. (link)

Renewable energy source integration made easier, more efficient, and more reliable using this deep-learning forecasting model from researchers at Chung-Ang University. (link)

FREE RESOURCES 📜 GREAT AI LISTENING

1) Learning Machines 101 - Committed to providing an accessible introduction to the complex and fascinating world of Artificial Intelligence - beginner-friendly and highly recommended. (link)

2) Practical AI: Making artificial intelligence practical, productive, and accessible to everyone - more user-friendly. (link)

3) Eye On A.I. - Features a unique offering of news, insight and data in the fast-moving artificial intelligence sector - digestible yet thorough. (link)

4) The Machine Learning Podcast - Detailed and technical explorations of machine learning and artificial intelligence - full-on technical. (link)

5) Voices in AI - In-depth interviews with the leading minds in artificial intelligence. (link)

6) Data Skeptic: A widely recognized authoritative source on artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning and similar topics - pretty technical. (link)

7) AI and You: What is AI? How will it affect your life, your work, and your world? - Good, entry-level discussions. (link)

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP 💭 AI WON’T TAKE OUR JOBS

“AI cannot cause overall unemployment to rise…because AI is already illegal for most of the economy, and will be for virtually all of the economy.” Click above to read Marc’s full thread - it’s very well-written and raises some good points.

Here, AI accelerationist Marc Andreessen presents his argument for why AI will not take all our jobs.

And why won’t it?

In a nutshell - because of government regulation and control, which heavily limits technological innovation in most sectors (represented in red in the graph above), limiting AI adoption in those sectors, which secures human jobs.

SOMETIMES, IT’S ONLY AS GOOD AS ITS TRAINING

A timely, and somewhat refreshing reminder, of one of the ways AI systems “think”.

BRAVE NEW BROWERS

While Microsoft’s Bing and Google’s Bard make headlines with back-chatting search assistants that give incorrect answers, a far smaller browser, Brave, recently launched a feature which generates succinct answers to a search query by combining the most relevant information from the best sources.

While this feature shows promising results, a spokesperson for Brave wisely cautions:

“It’s crucial to remind users that one should not believe everything an AI system produces…and we should not suspend critical thinking for anything we consume.”

While this is in reference to Brave’s AI Summarizer, it’s very, very good advice for interacting with any kind of content nowadays.

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