AI scams surge on social media: Concerns mount – Parmy Olsen

In the realm of technological advancement, where innovation flourishes, deceit often lurks close behind. The surge in generative artificial intelligence has become a magnet for fraudsters, especially on social media platforms. Targeting the vulnerable, they employ AI to craft convincing scams, leading to a concerning rise in complaints to the US Federal Trade Commission. From deepfake endorsements to deceptive AI trading platforms, the proliferation of these schemes underscores the urgent need for vigilance in an increasingly tech-driven world.

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By Parmy Olson

Where new technology goes, the unscrupulous follow. The generative artificial intelligence hype train has attracted fraudsters who aren't only using it as part of their schemes, but in their ads on social media sites. What's worse is that older and financially vulnerable people are sometimes the ones being targeted. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which polices deceptive advertising practices, saw a jump in complaints over the past year about ads that either used AI or claimed to use it to lure people into scams, according to a document of complaints obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by Bloomberg Opinion. At least a third of the complaints were about ads spotted on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, which now face a new kind of misinformation adversary among their own advertisers.

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