An A.I. Granny Befuddles Phone Scammers
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Daisy Harris, an A.I.-generated English granny, has been stymying scammers with meandering, time-wasting conversations. But can she actually make a dent in the flood of fraud?
Daisy Harris likes birds — there’s one outside her window. Her cat is named Fluffy, and she’d love to tell you about her knitting hobby. She likes tea and biscuits. And she just can’t seem to figure out this internet thing.
But perhaps you can explain it just one more time?
That’s the general vibe of a chat with Daisy Harris, an A.I.-generated granny unveiled this month by the big British phone company O2, as part of its efforts to curb phone scammers. She doesn’t have a badge, or a warrant, or any way to really stop them. But when an unlucky fraudster dials her number, Daisy does have the power to waste unlimited amounts of their time.
‘Do You Like Biscuits, Peter?’
In a call with a potential scammer, an A.I. granny deployed by a British phone company to fight phone fraud is diabolically friendly.
There are plenty of human scambaiters out there — people who identify would-be thieves and turn the tables, leading them on meandering conversations that keep them from calling other potential victims. Unlike them, Daisy is free of encumbrances like the need to sleep.
“These people can’t just talk to thousands of scammers,” said Morten Legarth, who helped develop Daisy with VCCP, an advertising agency in London. “But there’s an idea that A.I. can.”
Phone scams have reached mind-boggling levels: Tens of millions of scam calls rocketed around the world every day last year, according to the phone security company Hiya. An anti-scam consortium says that more than $1 trillion was stolen, often when targets unsuspectingly turned over bank details, passwords or other personal information.