Phone scams are nothing new, but the approach to countering them is evolving. Virgin Media O2 has unveiled a new AI called Daisy, a robot designed to keep scammers in their tracks. And the most surprising?
Daisy takes the personality of a talkative grandmother. She tells stories that seem to come straight from an afternoon at grandma's.
Daisy is not an AI like the others. Created by O2, it was specifically developed to converse with scammers and keep them busy as long as possible. This reduces the time they can spend deceiving real victims. Inspired by similar anti-scam initiatives, Daisy embodies the stereotype of an elderly person who is vulnerable, but cleverly programmed to keep scammers in suspense.
How does Daisy work? With endless stories about knitting, made-up family stories and even false personal information. O2 claims Daisy managed to keep scammers in line for more than 40 minutes. This result is made possible thanks to several AI models that make call transcriptions in real time and generate appropriate responses.
Why an AI grandmother?
The choice of Daisy's personality is not trivial. In the United Kingdom, older people are the main targets of phone scams. Scammers use social engineering techniques to extort sensitive information. In the United States, the situation is similar. The FBI reports that people over 60 represent 40% of victims of fraud. They suffer 58% of total losses, or more than $770 million.
Don't expect to be able to interact with Daisy yourself, unless you are a crook! O2 designed Daisy to target scammers only, with the aim of raising awareness and to prevent fraud. An O2 spokesperson clarified that the tool requires significant computing power, which limits its availability to the general public. For now, Daisy remains a discreet agent, ready to trap crooks.
The war against scammers rages on. The latter employ endless tricks. Therefore, countering these strategies requires constant innovation. Daisy represents a creative step forward in this fight, an effort to distract attention from fraudsters and protect vulnerable people. For consumers, it is always possible to report suspicious calls to 7726the O2 blocking service.
Something intrigues me
Personally, I wonder where Daisy's training data comes from. Could it be that the company is using our phone call records, or worse, thata program listens to us in secret to train your AI? The idea disturbs me and I couldn't help but wonder about what this means for our privacy. After all, if Daisy can simulate such a realistic conversationwhat personal information could have inspired its creation?
Although Daisy is just a robot, the idea that an AI could use a grandmother's chatter to lure scammers is still fun. It’s a reminder that even conversations that seem trivial can have an important role. While Daisy takes care of defend our lineswhy not take a moment to call your real grandmother? She surely has more authentic stories to share.
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