A scammer in China has used artificial intelligence to alter his appearance and pose as the friend of a businessman from whom he cheated more than half a million euros , authorities said.
The victim, whose last name only was given, Mr. Guo, says he received a video call in April from someone whose face and voice sounded unmistakably like that of a relative.
But the person in front was in fact a scammer "using artificial intelligence technology to modify his face", according to an article published Monday by a media linked to the authorities of Fuzhou (east).
As a pretext, the scammer claimed that another friend urgently needed money to pay the security deposit for a tender.
He thus succeeded in convincing Mr. Guo to transfer 4.3 million yuan (570,000 euros) from his company's bank account.
“During the video call, I was sure I recognized the face and voice of the person calling me, so I was not suspicious,” the businessman said, quoted in the article.
After the transfer, Mr. Guo sent a message to the friend whose identity had been impersonated.
Faced with the reaction of incomprehension from his friend, who was obviously not aware of the transaction, the businessman realized his mistake and contacted the police.
The latter ordered the bank not to make the transfer and Mr. Guo was able to recover 3.4 million yuan (450,000 euros), according to the article.
The perpetrators of the scam have not been identified.
The use of artificial intelligence, sometimes for malicious purposes, has received increased attention around the world, especially since the American company OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a conversational robot that can imitate the human voice, in November.
The interface is not accessible in China. But ChatGPT is the subject of countless discussions on social networks and Chinese tech giants are vying to design equivalent tools.
In January, the country tightened the framework for deepfake, these digital manipulations of increasingly realistic images and which present a challenge in the fight against disinformation.
Authorities will also impose a "security inspection" on Chinese-made AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, according to draft regulations unveiled last month.
Source: Burkina Information Agency