Video: Scammers use AI to clone human voices, try to extort money

Artificial Intelligence is past being just a buzzword and the cutting edge tech is fast becoming part of our lives. We do not know to what extent the technology is being harnessed by companies but if a TikTok video is to be believed, criminals are making use of AI to con people.

An Instagram account by the name metav3rse has posted series of videos that shows people share their experiences of how they got a call from their 'loved ones' saying that they were in trouble. The post suggests that voices of family members of these people were cloned using AI and that they sounded "100 per cent" like how they would speak or even cry, in real life.

In the video series, a TikTok user with a handle @babybushwhacked told her story of how her grandpa had a call saying that her little brother was in a car crash. The woman and her grandpa immediately thought that his life was in danger or he was arrested for causing an accident and was in need for money. The call got cut abruptly before the boy's grandpa could get the complete picture of things. The boy's sister scoured the streets for hours.

In the second video, a man tells his story how the scammers cloned his voice and called his folks to say that he was in a bad car accident. The man says he does not own a car and hasn't driven for months. The scammers, using the man's voice, asked his family members for money.

Scared witless, his family prepared to put together the amount when his father decided to call him and verify if it was really him who called earlier. Things were soon clear and money wasn't paid to the scammers.

Watch all the videos here

Artificial intelligence became a buzzword especially towards the end of last year when OpenAI released ChatGPT, a generative AI tool that became a blockbuster for its human-like replies to queries and nuanced, detailed answers, even conforming to an artistic style if needed. What this generated was curiosity as well as fear as real humans losing jobs to machines again became a major concern in people's minds.

The Instagram post with people's experience with scammers cloning voices of their loved ones has got tremendous views. At the time of publishing this story, the post has got nearly 70,000 likes and many many replies.

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