Daisy, the AI ​​that imitates a grandmother to trap scammers on the phone

This granny could well become a scammer's nightmare…because she's actually an AI. Daisy, an artificial intelligence created to imitate the voice and reactions of a grandmother, can trap scammers on the phone. Those who are nicknamed “grazers” call to extract money by pretending to be another person… and find themselves chatting for hours with an imperturbable – and terribly talkative – old lady. The goal: to keep scammers busy, in order to reduce their number of victims.

At the origin of this malicious idea is Virgin Media O2, a British telephone operator. “Daisy is indistinguishable from a real person, and tricks scammers into thinking they have found a perfect target so they can beat them at their own game”proclaimed the operator in a press release on November 14, on the occasion of the revelation of AI to the general public. In a presentation video, we can see Daisy demonstrating her skills: she speaks slowly in a monotone, pretends not to understand the information requested by a scammer and even offers to show him photos of her cat. The scammer gets impatient, at the end of his nerves: “It’s been almost an hour!” And Daisy responds, innocently: “It's true ? How time flies!” According to Virgin Media O2, the virtual grandmother can keep the “grazer” on the phone for almost forty minutes.

Also read
General Bonnemaison: “Artificial intelligence will improve our cyber defense”

An epidemic of online scams

To lure scammers, Virgin Media O2 added Daisy's number to number lists used by scammers. The artificial intelligence program used is a combination of models created in collaboration with Jim Browning, a videographer who specializes in tracking down online scammers. “Daisy combines multiple AI models that work together to listen to the caller and transcribe their voice into text. Appropriate responses are then generated using a large language model”details the operator in its press release. The company also teamed up with Amy Hart, a well-known English reality TV star and herself a former victim of fraud, to advertise its new AI. In the presentation video, the young woman encourages the British to send scammer numbers to 7726, so that they are automatically redirected to Daisy. The slogan is revealing to say the least: “Ruin ​​a crook’s day!”

These online scams are becoming more and more common in the UK. More than two thirds of Britons (67%) say they are afraid of being victims, while a fifth of them (22%) report being the subject of attempted fraud at least once a week. . And France is not spared: according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, scams increased from 250,900 victims in 2016 to 411,700 victims in 2023, an average increase of 7.3% per year. A way for “grazers” to take advantage of the aging population combined with the increasing complexity of technologies, which leaves many elderly people helpless in the face of online scams.