AI now sounds more like us should we be concerned?

"Several wealthy Italian businessmen received a surprising phone call earlier this year. The speaker, who sounded just like Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, had a special request: Please send money to help us free kidnapped Italian journalists in the Middle East. But it was not Crosetto at the end of the line. He only learned about the calls when several of the targeted businessmen contacted him about them. It eventually transpired that fraudsters had used artificial intelligence (AI) to fake Crosetto's voice."

"Advances in AI technology mean it is now possible to generate ultra-realistic voice-overs and sound bytes. Indeed, new research has found that AI-generated voices are now indistinguishable from real human voices. In this explainer, we unpack what the implications of this could be. Several Italian entrepreneurs and businessmen received calls at the start of February, one month after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had secured the release of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who had been imprisoned in Iran."

"In the calls, the deepfake voice of Crosetto asked the businessmen to wire around one million euros ($1.17m) to an overseas bank account, the details of which were provided during the call or in other calls purporting to be from members of Crosetto's staff. On February 6, Crosetto posted on X, saying he had received a call on February 4 from a friend, a prominent entrepreneur. That friend asked Crosetto if his office had called to ask for his mobile number."

AI voice synthesis now produces ultra-realistic, human-indistinguishable audio enabling attackers to impersonate high-profile figures. Fraudsters used such technology to mimic Italy's Defence Minister Guido Crosetto and called wealthy businessmen requesting roughly one million euros each to free kidnapped journalists. Callers provided overseas bank account details and sometimes followed up with additional calls from fake aides or a fabricated General to validate the request. Some victims transferred large sums before discovery. The minister learned about the scheme only after targets contacted him. The incident demonstrates increased risk of phone-based social engineering, complicating authentication and financial security for private individuals and institutions.

Read at www.aljazeera.com