Deepfake Elon Musk is out to scam you

Scammers using Al-edited videos of genuine interviews with billionaires to con investors.

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And he thought entrepreneur Elon Musk could help.

Mr Beauchamp, an 82-year-old retiree, saw a video in late 2023 of Mr Musk endorsing a radical investment opportunity that promised rapid returns.

He contacted the firm behind the pitch and opened an account for US$248 (S$324). Through a series of transactions over several weeks, Mr Beauchamp drained his retirement account, ultimately investing more than US$690,000. Then the money vanished - lost to digital scammers on the forefront of a new criminal enterprise powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

The scammers had edited a genuine interview with Mr Musk, replacing his voice with a replica using AI tools. The AI was sophisticated enough that it could alter minute mouth movements match the new script they had written for the digital fake. To a casual viewer, the manipulation might have been imperceptible to "I mean, the picture of him - it was him," Mr Beauchamp said about the video he saw of Mr Musk.

"Now, whether it was AI making him say the things that he was saying, I really don't know. But as far as the picture, if somebody had said, 'Pick him out of a line-up,' that's him." Thousands of these Al-driven videos, known as deepfakes, have flooded the internet in recent months, featuring phony versions of Mr Musk deceiving scores of would-be investors. Al-powered deepfakes are expected to contribute to billions of dollars in fraud losses each year, according to estimates from Deloitte.

The videos cost just a few dollars to produce and can be made in minutes. They are promoted on social media, including in paid ads on Facebook, magnifying their reach.

"It's probably the biggest deepfake-driven scam ever," said Mr Francesco Cavalli, the co-founder and chief of threat intelligence at Sensity, a company that monitors and detects deepfakes.

The videos are often eerily lifelike, capturing Mr Musk's iconic stilted cadence and South African accent.