The hottest tech trend worldwide is now creating a new challenge for voters as we head toward the presidential election.
It appears artificial intelligence is being used to try and trick voters.
The good news? Tech companies are already starting to fight back.
One day before the New Hampshire primary, a robocall claiming to be from President Joe Biden urged voters to stay away from the polls.
But President Biden didn't actually make the call -- artificial intelligence did.
It’s unclear who is behind it.
Biden’s name will not appear on the ballot in the upcoming New Hampshire primary on Tuesday over a dispute between the state and the Democratic National Committee — as a result, there is an organized effort to write-in Biden's name.
"Voters are pretty defenseless,” said Robert Weissman, the president of Public Citizen. “These are high quality fakes, and you really can't tell."
Those who track high tech deep fakes, like Public Citizen, say this is likely the first of many attempts to use technology to fool voters in this election year.
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"The era of political deep fakes is upon us, and if regulators don't get ahead of this, we're going to see deep fakes cause election chaos through 2024 and into November," said Weirssman.
Silicon Valley Cyber Security companies like McAfee are already tracking deep fakes. They say a combination of software and skepticism can keep you away from scams.
"Make sure that you get the information from a reputable source, because it's so easy for bad actors to create this generative content,” said Steve Grobman, CTO of McAfee.
And expect more companies to get into the fight, including apps, like Truecaller, which use AI to distinguish real calls from machine-generated fakes.
"Are there artifacts in digitally created voices, AI-created voices, that are different that just digitizing my voice?" said Clayton Liabraaten of Truecaller.
Those companies expect to be very busy trying to find the deep fakes in the coming months.
