Of course, the concern with a chatbot like Daisy is that the same technology can be used to opposite ends—we have already seen instances where real people, like CEOs of large companies, have had their voices deepfaked in order to trick others into sending money to a scammer. The elderly are already vulnerable enough. If they get a call from someone who sounds like a grandchild they are almost certain to believe it’s real.
Ultimately, blocking fraudulent calls and shutting down the organizations that run these scams would be the ideal solution. Carriers have gotten better at identifying scammers and blocking their numbers, but it remains a cat-and-mouse game. Scammers take advantage of automated dialing tools that allow them to dial numbers in rapid succession and are alerted by the tool only when it gets an answer. An AI bot that frustrates scammers by answering and wasting their time is better than nothing.