Her voice seemed off, not quite right, and it meandered in unexpected ways.
Viewers familiar with science presenter Liz Bonnin’s Irish accent were puzzled when they received an audio message seemingly from her endorsing a product from a distant location.
It turned out the message was a fake, created by artificial intelligence to mimic Bonnin’s voice. After spotting her image in an online advertisement, Bonnin’s team investigated and found out it was a scam.
Bonin, known for her work on TV shows like Bang Goes The Theory, expressed her discomfort with the imitated voice, which she described as shifting from Irish to Australian to British.
The person behind the failed campaign, Incognito CEO Howard Carter, claimed he had received convincing audio messages from someone posing as Bonin, leading him to believe it was the real presenter.
The fake Bonin provided contact details and even posed as a representative from the Wildlife Trust charity, negotiating a deal for the advertisement campaign. Carter eventually realized he had been scammed after transferring money and receiving the image for the campaign.
AI experts confirmed that the voice memos were likely artificially generated due to inconsistencies in accent and recitation speed. Bonin warned about the dangers of AI misuse and stressed the importance of caution.
Incognito reported the incident to authorities and issued a statement cautioning others about sophisticated scams involving AI. They apologized to Bonin for any unintended harm caused by the deception.
Neither the BBC nor the Wildlife Trust responded to requests for comments on the incident.
Source: www.theguardian.com
