OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says it "terrifies" him that banks still use voice-based authentication methods in an era when the AI that he has helped bring into the mainstream can trick such technology.
The uptake of AI deepfake voice and video scams has been on the rise in over the last year, as crooks embrace new technology to scam people out of money. The US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network recently issued an alert to help banks to spot the scams.
Speaking in an interview at the Federal Reserve, Altman said: “I am very nervous that we have an impending, significant, impending fraud crisis. Right now, it’s a voice call; soon it’s going be a video or FaceTime that’s indistinguishable from reality."
Already, the technology has caught up with how some banks authenticate users, he warned: “A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept a voice print as authentication for you to move a lot of money or do something else — you say a challenge phrase, and they just do it.
"That is a crazy thing to still be doing...AI has fully defeated most of the ways that people authenticate currently, other than passwords."