Not just money, deepfakes robbing people of dignity

When a finance executive at a British engineering firm, Arup, joined a routine Skype meeting in Jan 2024, familiar faces filled the screen. The company leaders he had interacted with countless times spoke with authority, blinked naturally, and smiled reassuringly. Except the people on screen were not real, and the AI-crafted doubles duped the firm, which worked on the Statue of Unity and India’s rail projects, of nearly $25 million. The deepfakes were so flawless that 15 transfers from the Hong Kong office went through before anyone realised the con.