Technological advancements in artificial intelligence create the potential to fuel romance scams, according to one UBC associate professor.
The voice you hear on the other end of your phone call may not be who you think it is, the person you're texting with may really be a bot and the face in a photo or video on your favourite dating app may not even exist. Technological advancements in artificial intelligence create the potential to fuel romance scams, said Jeff Clune, an associate professor of computer science at the University of British Columbia. A young person uses a smart phone in Chicago.
Scammers now have “more tools in their toolbox to hoodwink people, especially people who are not aware of recent advances in technology,” he said in an interview. The centre has warned that Valentine’s Day provides an “opportunity for fraudsters to target Canadians looking for a relationship.” Its latest available data revealed 1,928 reports of romance scams totalling more than $64.5 million in losses in 2021, a nearly 25 per cent jump from the year before.
“Text generators have progressed to a point where the content they produce is often nearly indecipherable from legitimate material.” Suzie Dunn, an assistant professor at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University, said the law has not kept up with technology, leaving “major gaps” in the legal framework.
“If you’re using someone’s images or using someone’s name, then it can be counted as a form of impersonation, but with these new technologies, where you can actually create a non-existent person, the types of harms that are often meant to be covered under these impersonation rules aren’t really covered.”Sign up for our newsletter to get breaking news and daily digests sent to your email.“We don’t need new extortion laws.
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