Phone scams are nothing new, but with the advent of AI, it's harder than ever to know if the person you're talking to is who they say they are. But British mobile network O2 has turned the tables and created what it calls an “AI grandma” that keeps tabs on scammers for no good reason.
The bot, called Daisy, uses “human-like rambling chat” to keep the scammer talking. Its stated purpose is to waste your time by talking about your family, knitting, and divulging completely fabricated personal information, including your bank account details.
Created with the help of YouTuber, software engineer, and famous “con man” Jim Browning, Daisy uses a combination of different AI models to listen and answer calls. But it's not something you can use yourself (although it's a lot of fun). O2 says it was able to successfully add some of its own phone numbers to the list used by scammers for this exercise.
Designed to commemorate International Fraud Awareness Week, the company claims it “had numerous scammers on the phone for 40 minutes at a time.”