Update on artificial intelligence: even experts can be fooled

        First, I would like to thank all those who turned out for our recent Neighborhood Watch meeting held at the Lake Township Administration Building, where Officer Randy Sehl and I conducted a discussion on artificial intelligence (AI) scams. We had to get extra chairs out so everyone could sit.
        This was an important topic for those who attended, and we got many interesting questions.
        This has been a topic that is discussed a lot nationally, as is evidenced by the number of stories on TV news shows. This past Sunday night, on a network news show, there was a story that featured an expert in AI who was unable to tell the difference in many video clips between the real thing and AI-generated ones.
        These clips showed a variety of famous people, including former President Donald Trump, who in the clip was “being arrested” and another one of President Joe Biden. The expert immediately was able to tell the video of Trump was a fake, noting the clip showed the former president had three legs, but she was fooled by the one of Biden.
        While video clips are one step above what we discussed at our meeting, we touched on phone calls (audio) from someone you think you know but it turns out to be a digitally remastered discussion using that person’s actual voice.               As I said during the meeting, scammers are able to take a couple of minutes of a person’s voice and turn it into a 15-minute conversation in which the scammer tries to get your personal information.
        One of the national TV networks recently did a study in which they gathered several experts and tested them using audio clips of their own friends and relatives, some of them real and some of them generated by AI. They were asked to tell which ones were real conversations and which were AI-generated ones. These experts were wrong 71 percent of the time.
        It's no wonder so many people are being fooled by AI and are being bilked out of so much money.
        If you get a call from someone you think you know and they ask you for personal information, play it safe. Don’t be rude just in case it is really that person but make an excuse to get off the phone. Say you have another phone call that is coming in that you have to take, or say you have something on the stove, and tell them you will call them right back.
        Don’t be surprised when you call them back and they tell you they didn’t call you.
        The best advice I can give is to never give out your personal information on the phone, but rather do it only in person.
        I have talked to several people after the meeting who said they could not make it and asked if we were going to conduct another meeting to discuss AI. With the way things are evolving so quickly, I’m sure we will be having another meeting in the not-so-distant future.
        This article is a public service from the Community Policing/Crime Prevention Division of the Lake Township Police Department. Township residents may obtain further information on crime prevention and public safety topics by contacting Ron Craig, crime prevention specialist/community policing officer, at 419-481-6354.