Scammers Use AI to Clone Voice of Italian Defense Minister to Target Businessmen

Are people not aware that AI exists?

Who falls for something like this?

RT:

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has declared his voice a “masterpiece,” after discovering that scammers used AI to impersonate him last week in a reported attempt to solicit funds from the country’s wealthiest business people.

Crosetto first alerted the public to the ongoing scam on Thursday in a post on X, warning that several prominent figures had been approached by imposters.

The scammers reportedly aimed to capitalize on a recent high-profile prisoner exchange with Iran, during which Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was released. The AI-generated “Crosetto” claimed urgent funding was needed to pay ransom for other reporters supposedly held in the Middle East, framing it as a matter of national security.

…

Crosetto shared some jokes he was told about the situation, noting a suggestion from a friend that he could take solace in the fact that “fake copies of all masterpieces circulate.”

Yeah, that’s probably funnier in Italian, I would assume.

Original tweet here.