Tag: AI

Financial Times »

Audio, video and images generated by AI — so-called deepfakes — are one of the factors behind that rise. Accounting and consulting firm Deloitte estimates that AI-generated content contributed to more than $12bn in fraud losses in the US last year, and could reach $40bn by 2027.

As the problem has grown in a range of countries, so has the debate between government, banks and technology companies over who should foot the bill when the money cannot be recovered.

In the UK, the government ruled that banks are liable for up to £85,000 in losses. In Australia, more of the blame may be pinned on tech companies.

In the US, the question of who must pay remains unanswered — and is becoming politically fraught. Some senior Democrats want the banks to take more responsibility, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is investigating Zelle, an account-to-account payments system owned by a consortium of large US banks which has been used by scammers.

London-based architecture and design firm Arup Group were defrauded of some US$25 million (HK$200m) after scammers used AI-generated “deepfakes” to falsely pose as the group’s CFO and request transfers from an employee to bank accounts in Hong Kong.

Arup, which employs about 18,000 people globally, has annual revenues of more than £2bn.

Cheng Leng and Chan Ho-him, writing for Financial Times »

The case highlights the threat posed by deepfakes — hyper-realistic video, audio or other material generated using artificial intelligence — when used by cyber criminals to target companies or governments.

“We can confirm that fake voices and images were used,” the company said, declining to give details because the incident was still being investigated. “Our financial stability and business operations were not affected and none of our internal systems were compromised,” it said.

Hong Kong police acting senior superintendent Baron Chan told local media in February that a member of staff at the targeted company had received a message purporting to be from the UK-based chief financial officer regarding a “confidential transaction”.

CNN »

According to police, the worker had initially suspected he had received a phishing email from the company’s UK office, as it specified the need for a secret transaction to be carried out. However, the worker put aside his doubts after the video call because other people in attendance had looked and sounded just like colleagues he recognized.

He subsequently agreed to send a total of 200 million Hong Kong dollars — about $25.6 million. The amount was sent across 15 transactions, Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK reported, citing police.

“Deepfake” normally refers to fake videos that have been created using artificial intelligence (AI) and look extremely realistic.

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