Impostor uses AI to impersonate Rubio and contact foreign and US officials

WASHINGTON AP The State Department is warning U S diplomats of attempts to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and possibly other officers using hardware driven by artificial intelligence according to two senior personnel and a cable sent last week to all embassies and consulates The warning came after the department discovered that an impostor posing as Rubio had attempted to reach out to at least three foreign ministers a U S senator and a governor according to the July cable which was first stated by The Washington Post The recipients of the scam messages which were sent by text Signal and voice mail were not identified in the cable a copy of which was shared with The Associated Press The State Department is aware of this matter and is as of now monitoring and addressing the matter department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce recounted reporters The department takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard its information and continuously take strategies to improve the department s cybersecurity posture to prevent future incidents She declined to comment further due to assurance reasons and the ongoing study It s the latest instance of a high-level Trump administration figure targeted by an impersonator with a similar circumstance revealed in May involving President Donald Trump s chief of staff Susie Wiles The misuse of AI to deceive people is likely to grow as the machinery improves and becomes more widely available and the FBI warned this past spring about malicious actors impersonating senior U S leadership representatives in a text and voice messaging campaign The hoaxes involving Rubio had been unsuccessful and not very sophisticated one of the leaders declared Nonetheless the second official commented the department deemed it prudent to advise all employees and foreign governments particularly as efforts by foreign actors to compromise information prevention increase The functionaries were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity There is no direct cyber threat to the department from this campaign but information shared with a third party could be exposed if targeted individuals are compromised the cable explained The FBI has warned in a masses operation announcement about a malicious campaign relying on text messages and AI-generated voice messages that purport to come from a senior U S official and that aim to dupe other establishment bureaucrats as well as the victim s associates and contacts This is not the first time that Rubio has been impersonated in a deepfake This spring someone created a bogus video of him saying he craved to cut off Ukraine s access to Elon Musk s Starlink internet operation Ukraine s leadership later rebutted the false claim Several possible solutions have been put forward in current years to the growing misuse of AI for deception including criminal penalties and improved media literacy Concerns about deepfakes have also led to a flood of new apps and AI systems designed to spot phonies that could easily fool a human The tech companies working on these systems are now in competition against those who would use AI to deceive according to Siwei Lyu a professor and computer scientist at the University at Buffalo He stated he s seen an increase in the number of deepfakes portraying celebrities politicians and business leaders as the instrument improves Just a minimal years ago fakes contained easy-to-spot flaws inhuman voices or mistakes like extra fingers but now the AI is so good it s much harder for a human to spot giving deepfake makers an advantage The level of realism and quality is increasing Lyu revealed It s an arms race and right now the generators are getting the upper hand The Rubio hoax comes after text messages and phone calls went to elected leaders business executives and other prominent figures from someone who seemed to have gained access to the contacts in Wiles personal cellphone The Wall Street Journal shared in May Chosen of those who received calls heard a voice that sounded like Wiles which may have been generated by AI according to the newspaper The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles number the account mentioned The ruling body was studying