OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Is Terrified About AI Financial institution Fraud

Sam Altman, the CEO of $300 billion AI startup OpenAI, is asking finance trade leaders to remain forward of AI traits — and to keep away from voice authentication in any respect prices.

On the Federal Reserve’s Regulatory Capital Framework Convention on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Altman advised a crowd of monetary regulators and trade consultants that “a factor that terrifies” him is banks that also settle for voices to authenticate identification. AI voice cloning hoaxes can copy an individual’s voice in three seconds and use the cloned voice to empty financial institution accounts.

“A factor that terrifies me is outwardly there are nonetheless some monetary establishments that can settle for a voice print as authentication so that you can transfer some huge cash or do one thing else,” Altman mentioned on the occasion, per Enterprise Insider.

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Altman mentioned voice authentication was “a loopy factor to nonetheless be doing” and that AI has “totally defeated” some ways monetary establishments at present verify identification.

He additionally warned that AI has the potential to trigger a “vital impending fraud disaster,” and predicted that establishments are going to have to remodel the way in which they confirm identification in response.

“Individuals are going to have to vary the way in which they work together,” Altman mentioned. “They’ll have to vary the way in which they confirm. It is a big deal.”

^{OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks on the Federal Reserve’s Regulatory Capital Framework Convention on Tuesday. Photograph by Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures}

Throughout a Q&A session on the Federal Reserve occasion, Altman was additionally requested about what retains him up at evening. He mentioned a widespread monetary disaster the place an adversary makes use of AI to launch an assault on the U.S. The dangerous actor might “break into monetary techniques and take everybody’s cash,” and there can be little we might do about it, Altman mentioned. It might be troublesome to uphold protecting measures in opposition to an adversary with smarter AI, Altman defined.

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Altman’s fears that AI could possibly be misused within the flawed arms are echoed by monetary leaders. In response to a survey launched in March by consulting agency Accenture, 80% of financial institution cybersecurity leaders state that AI permits dangerous actors to launch assaults quicker than banks can reply. In different phrases, the leaders cannot sustain with the speedy tempo of AI scams focusing on private financial institution accounts.

Customers reported dropping greater than $12.5 billion to scams in 2024, a 25% enhance from the earlier yr, in response to the Federal Commerce Fee. Extra individuals fell for scams and misplaced cash to them final yr, with $2.95 billion misplaced to imposter scams.

Nonetheless, some prime executives at OpenAI are satisfied it has the ability to do a whole lot of good, from eradicating illnesses to serving to help equal pay initiatives.

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