AI can easily impersonate you. This trick helps thwart scammers

A special phrase can keep your friends and family from losing money.

- BY ALAINA YEE

Artificial intelligence's rapidly expanding capabilities include convincing impersonations—that is, audio and video that sounds and looks like you. Sometimes these deepfakes can be harmless, part of a joke or meme that involves a celebrity, politician, or other public figure. But as you might guess, scammers also use them to steal money from the unsuspecting.

Most of the time, this style of scheme—often called a “grandparent scam” (fave.co/40jX7ix)—catches people off guard. Why? Because they don’t realize how easy and sophisticated this technology has become. For example, over two years ago, Microsoft’s Vall-E model was already able to mimic a specific voice based on audio samples just three seconds long (fave.co/459a3cT). AI tech has continued to improve since then.