AI granny wastes scammers' time with endless chatter

In a novel approach to combat phone scams, British mobile phone company O2 introduced Daisy, an AI-driven chatbot personifying a grandmother. Released earlier this month, Daisy aims to distract fraudsters by engaging them in lengthy, human-like conversations. This innovative tactic arises from the alarming rise in online scams, with the FBI reporting $12.5 billion in losses in 2023 alone. Daisy's development is a strategic response to the findings that elderly individuals are often targeted by fraudsters. O2 partnered with London advertising agency VCCP to create an AI character based on a real individual's grandmother, which the agency believed would play into the biases of scammers. By using a custom language model, Daisy is able to hold convincing conversations for extended periods. Previous strategies to bait scammers have seen minimal success as many individuals are wary of wasting their own time. Daisy, however, suffers from no such reservations. As she engages in conversations with different scam callers, she combines rambling family tales with fabricated personal details, effectively frustrating the scammers who are seeking quick gains. According to O2, Daisy’s efforts have extended calls with scammers up to 40 minutes, holding them captive and preventing them from targeting real victims. This initiative emphasizes the severity of the scam issue in the UK, where the company has actively worked to block over £250 million in suspected fraudulent transactions within the past year. This broader campaign underscores the need for vigilance among consumers in the face of relentless and innovative scam tactics.