I'd forgotten that just a couple of years ago there were warnings in the news about how AI was being used to create videos of celebrities and politicians saying things they did not say.
Last night I read an article about how those same kinds of tools are being used to create voice
recordings that sound like anyone.
Bad characters are creating recordings that sound like someone's family member in order to place calls and scare people into thinking a family member is in danger.
I don't know what makes people so deranged...
With such intense focus on AI these days,
though, you need to be hyper-aware that these readily available tools can be used for bad as much as they can be used for good.
Just be careful out there!
If you haven't already, you might come up with a secret code word or phrase that only you and
your immediate family know.
If a family member is ever really in trouble they can say the phrase or you can ask for the phrase as a way of validating that you're really speaking with a family member.
You might even have several code words or phrases that mean different things.
On the TV show Supernatural, the brothers use the word
"Poughkeepsie" as their code word to mean something was wrong.
I always thought that was perfect not only because my parents are from there and I spent a lot of time there growing up but also because it's a city name that's unfamiliar to so many people.
On Blue Bloods, the Reagan family uses the phrase "Please don't hurt my family" as a code phrase that means
"duck".
Chances are you will never need to use code words at all but you should stay on top of the awful ways people can use these AI tools to trick others.