An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to Hong Kong's public broadcaster RTHK. The story has been corrected
A worker in Hong Kong was tricked into handing over more than $25 million after an AI-generated conference call impersonating his colleagues.
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““This time, in a multi-person video conference, it turns out that everyone you see is fake.”“
A Hong Kong multinational company learned first-hand how artificial intelligence can be used for bad purposes after an employee inadvertently handed over HK$200 million ($25.5 million) following a conference call that turned out to be completely fake.
The employee was initially invited last month to a video conference call from what appeared to be the company's chief financial officer, according to a report by public broadcaster RTHK and the South China Morning Post on Monday.
Once the meeting time was over, the employee was greeted by voices and appearances identical to his colleagues, and followed instructions to carry out 15 transactions worth HK$200 million to five local bank accounts. The worker only later realized something was wrong after speaking with the company's president.
“I believe the fraudster pre-downloaded videos and then used artificial intelligence to add fake voices for use in the video conference,” Baron Chan Chun Cheng, acting chief superintendent of the Hong Kong Police Department's cybersecurity unit, said at a news conference. The conference was broadcast by RTHK.
Deepfakes refer to photos, videos, or audio clips that have been doctored using computers.
“In the past, we assumed that these scams would only involve two people in one-on-one situations, but we can see from this case that scammers are able to use AI technology in online meetings, so people should be careful even in meetings,” he said. With many participants.”
US regulators last month warned investors about the growing prevalence of deepfakes, such as using artificial intelligence to impersonate a grandchild asking grandparents for money or a fake video of a company CEO making a sensitive stock announcement. Last month, the World Economic Forum listed artificial intelligence-generated false information as a major risk to the global economy.
Many fear what may come this year with the first US presidential election in which artificial intelligence tools are readily available. Oren Etzioni, an artificial intelligence expert and professor emeritus at the University of Washington, told PBS late last year that he expected a “tsunami of misinformation.”
In the wake of visceral candid photos of Grammy winner Taylor Swift that spread on social media last month, bipartisan senators have introduced a bill to criminalize the spread of “digital fakery.”
