How 'deepfake Elon Musk' became the internet's biggest scammer

All Steve Beauchamp wanted was money for his family. And he thought Elon Musk could help.

- STUART A THOMPSON

Beauchamp, an 82-year-old retiree, saw a video late last year of Musk endorsing a radical investment opportunity that promised rapid returns. He contacted the company behind the pitch and opened an account for $248. Through a series of transactions over several weeks, Beauchamp drained his retirement account, ultimately investing more than $690,000.

Then the money vanished ― lost to digital scammers on the forefront of a new criminal enterprise powered by artificial intelligence. The scammers had edited a genuine interview with Musk, replacing his voice with a replica using AI tools. The AI was sophisticated enough that it could alter minute mouth movements to match the new script they had written for the digital fake. To a casual viewer, the manipulation might have been imperceptible.

"I mean, the picture of him it was him," Beauchamp said about the video he saw of Musk.