An Arizona mother wants to warn about scams using Artificial Intelligence AI to clone voices.
According to The Post Millennial, Jennifer DeStafano was almost a victim of a horrifying phone scam that used AI to clone her 15-year-old daughters voice.
Jennifer DeStefanos 15-year-old daughter was out of town on a ski trip. The Arizona mom was at her other daughters dance studio when she received a call from a number she did not recognize.
According to NBC, Jennifer DeStafano told WKYT that she got a call from an unknown number and almost let it go to voicemail. However, her daughter was skiing on an out-of-town trip, so she picked up.
When she picked up the phone, DeStefano said, I hear my daughters voice, and it says, Mom! and shes sobbing.
DeStefano continued, I said, What happened? And she said, Mom, I messed up.
What happened next terrified the Arizona mom. She heard a man say, Put your head back, lie down. He then spoke directly to the mother, saying, Listen here. Ive got your daughter. [This] is how its going to go down. You call the police; you call anybody; Im going to pump her so full of drugs. Im going to have my way with her, and Im going to drop her off in Mexico.
Now horrified, DeStefano could still hear what she thought was her daughters voice screaming, Help me, Mom. Please help me. Help me.
The man demanded one million dollars and lowered his demand to $500,000 when DeStafano told him she did not have those funds.
One worried mom who overheard the conversation called 911, and another phoned DeSafanos husband, who confirmed the daughter was safe.
AI technology has rapidly improved to the point that now only three seconds of a persons voice is needed for cloning. Subbarao Kambhampati, a computer science professor at Arizona State University, says, And with the three seconds, it can come close to how exactly you sound. He added that deep learning technology has very little oversight and is easy to access for public use.
Dan May, Assistant Special Agent in charge of the FBIs Phoenix office, explained that this scam happens daily. He said that scammers who use AI voice technology find voice clips on social media.
Relieved her daughter was safe, DeStefano wants to warn others that the AI technology used to mimic her daughters voice was so convincing that she never doubted for one second it was her. It sounded like her voice, inflections, and the way she cries.
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