Readily accessible artificial intelligence (AI) technology was presented in a new threat as an Arizona mother testified to Congress about the ransom scam that left her worried for her 15-year-old daughter’s life.
“…you tell anyone…I am going to have my way with her…and you’ll never see her again.”
Concern over deepfakes, though not new, has grown recently with the rapid advancement in AI and the widespread availability of simulation technology. Having already made its way into campaign politics, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law invited guests to testify Tuesday on some of the impacts being felt around the country.
As part of the hearing on AI and Human Rights, Arizona mother Jennifer DeStefano was asked to speak about how she became a victim of an “AI deepfake kidnapping and extortion scam” that had put her and her family at risk.
WATCH: Jennifer DeStefano, the victim of an AI deepfake kidnapping and extortion scam, delivers her opening statement in Chairman Ossoff’s hearing exploring the implications of artificial intelligence for human rights. pic.twitter.com/XDfJoAgi80
— Ossoff’s Office (@SenOssoff) June 13, 2023
During her statement, DeStefano explained how she received a call on Jan. 20 while with one of her daughters at dance class. “I answered the phone ‘Hello,’ on the other end was our daughter Briana sobbing and crying saying ‘mom.'”
“Briana continued with ‘mom, I messed up’ with more crying and sobbing. Not thinking twice, I asked her again, ‘Ok, what happened?'” the mom explained. At the time, her older daughter Briana was with her father on a ski trip.
“Suddenly a man’s voice barked at her to ‘lay down and put your head back.’ At that moment I started to panic. My concern escalated and I demanded to know what was going on, but nothing could have prepared me for her response,” DeStefano recounted. “‘Mom, these bad men have me, help me, help me!’ she begged and pleaded as the phone was taken from her.”
“A threatening and vulgar man took over the call,” her testimony detailed. “‘Listen here, I have your daughter, you tell anyone, you call the cops, I am going to pump her stomach so full of drugs, I am going to have my way with her, drop her in Mexico and you’ll never see her again.'”
“All the while Briana was in the background desperately pleading ‘mom, help me!'” she explained to the Senate committee.
“I didn’t believe this was a scam. It wasn’t just Brie’s voice, it was her cries, it was her sobs that were unique to her. It wasn’t possible to fake that I protested,” she went on.
During the call, other parents at the studio had reached out to verify Briana’s safety while also getting in touch with the police. As DeStefano was learning that even inflection could be faked, the ransom demand sought $1 million. When the mom replied that was impossible, the amount was reduced to $50,000 as the scammers explained how they wanted to arrange to pick up the money in person.
Her effort to file a police report, she asserted, left authorities brushing off the incident as little more than a “prank call.”
DeStefano’s testimony comes as experts from varied fields have all voiced their concerns over the “existential threat to humanity” posed by AI technology and many, including billionaire Elon Musk, have called for a pause in development to allow society to catch up with the advancements that have already been made.
Growing number of experts, professionals agree that AI is ‘existential threat to humanity’https://t.co/2cxX86Xwz2
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) May 10, 2023
The mother echoed those sentiments as she testified, “As our world moves at a lightning-fast pace, the human element of familiarity that lays foundation to our social fabric of what is ‘known’ and what is ‘truth,’ is being revolutionized with Artificial Intelligence. Some for good, and some for evil.”
“If left uncontrolled, unguarded and without consequence, it will rewrite our understanding and perception what is and what is not truth. It will erode our sense of ‘familiar’ as it corrodes our confidence in what is real and what is not,” DeStefano added as she too called on Congress to do something to prevent similar harms, or worse, from happening to other families.
How many years do we have before AI kills us all?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 12, 2023
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Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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